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HISTORY 



Old ^outl\ (i\\ui'6}\ 




PUBLISHED FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE OLD SOUTH FUND. 



i; O S T O N : 
PRINTED BY REUBEN HILDRETH, 

No. 49 CORNHILL. 



HISTORY 



OLD SOUTH CHURCH 



OF BOSTON. 



Words pass as wind ; but where great deeds were done, 
The power abides, transfused from sire to son." — Loweli, 



PUBLISHED 

FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE OLD SOUTH FUND. 

1876. 






\ 



PREFACE. 



This little sketch claims simply to be a compilation. It has been 
written to supply an immediate need, and has drawn its material from 
many sources. Dr. Wisner's sermons and Gen. Quincy's eloquent speech 
before the Massachusetts legislature have furnished the early history; 
and the events of Revolutionary interest have been drawn chiefly from 
the papers of the day or the lives of the prominent actors. 

At some future time a larger volume will be issued, suitably prepared 
and copiously illustrated, which shall be more worthy of the subject of 
which it treats. 

November, 1876. 



THE HISTOBY 



OLD SOUTH CHUBOH. 



FOUNDATION AND EARLY HISTORY. 



Few spots in this New World of ours are rendered vener- 
able by so long a line of associations as is the Old. South 
Church. 

The very land upon which it stands was the dwelling- 
place of Gov. Winthrop, the scene of the earliest struggles 
of the colony upon this barren coast. Here in the Old 
South Church has Thatcher preached and Dudley worshipped ; 
here Franldin was baptized; and here, in later days, the 
eloquence of Adams, of Quincy, and of Warren, kindled 
the flame which fired the Revolution. Within its walls 
were won our earliest victories. Before its voice the proud- 
est emissaries of the British crown wavered and trembled. 
At its word Massachusetts men were delivered from impress, 
and the haughty commander of his majesty's man-of-war 
yielded in awed submission. Governor and military bowed 
alike before the mandates from the Old South Church ; and 
at its command King George's troops retreated from Boston 
soil. Its very name became a watchword, a cry of peril, 
and a war-blast of defiance. 

From the family of Gov. Winthrop the estate passed into 
the hands of the revered John Norton, a preacher dearly 
loved and highly honored throughout the province, and from 



him to the Mary Norton whose name has become so familiar 
to our ears. 

It was a time of much excitement in the rehgious world 
of Boston ; and the " religious world," in those days, was 
very different from what it is in ours. Free will was the 
favorite topic of society, and the " Subjects of Baptism " 
a rock of dissension which estranged the nearest friends. 
Church and State were as intimately connected as ever in 
Spain or Italy. No man was a citizen in Massachusetts un- 
less he was likewise a church-member. A large class of the 
community thus found itself disfranchised, and incapable of 
holding any office, although subject to taxation, impress, 
and all other public burdens. Since no man could become 
a church-member except through the gates of baptism, it 
became a very serious question ivho should be held entitled 
to that rite. Churches differed greatly in their regulations, 
especially as to the admission of the children of church- 
members without any personal experience of religion ; and 
the First. Church in Boston exacted the full letter of the 
ancient law. The more liberal spirits of the parish rebelled ; 
and, in 1669, this dissenting minority seceded from the churcli 
whose tenets they disapproved. 

Mary Norton, widow of the former pastor, was of the 
number ; and, in the following April, she deeded to the use 
of the new society a portion of her garden, on which to 
place a meeting-house for the preaching of a broader faith. 

Great was the indignation of their comrades at the outset ; 
and the seceders were even refused those letters of dismis- 
sion necessary to enable them to become members of another 
church. A council was even called together lest " a sudden 
tumult should arise." The ground for this fear was publicly 
proclaimed. " Some persons," it was declared, " were attempt- 
ing to set up an edifice for public worship which was appre- 
hended by the authorities to be detrimental to the public 
peace.'' The council, however, saw no cause for serious 
alarm, and the meeting-house on Madam Norton's garden 
was suffered to proceed. From its situation, it was known 



as the South Church, until, in 1717, on the erection of 
the New South on Summer Street, it received its present 
name. 

Fourteen years elapsed before the mother church forgave 
her wandering children ; but, in 1682, aggressions from 
abroad called for united defence. In face of the proposal 
that ministers from England should be brought over and 
supported by contributions from congregations here, there 
seemed need for union in the Puritan ranks. Therefore, 
at a meeting of the First Church, it was agreed that a pro- 
posal to " forget and forgive all past offences " should be sent 
to the upstart congregation, and that " thenceforward the two 
societies should live together in peace." The Third Church 
gladly acceded, and both societies kept a solemn day to- 
gether, when, lamenting their former contentions, they gave 
thanks to the great Peacemaker for effecting this joyful 
reconciliation. The union was none too soon ; for, in 1685, the 
charter of the colony was repealed, and the very next day 
a clergyman of the Church of England petitioned for the 
use of one of the Congregational meeting-houses. This re- 
quest was refused, and he was granted the east end of the 
Town House until those who desired his ministrations should 
furnish him with better accomodations. But in December 
folloAving arrived Sir Edmund Andros, the^ most tyrannical 
ruler ever sent from England to oppress the colonies. One 
of his first acts was to intimate to the ministers of the town, 
that he and his retinue desired the use of one of the churches, 
for the English services. When the ministers replied that 
they could not conscientiously accede to his demand, he sent 
for the keys of the South Meeting-house. They were re- 
fused ; and a deputation of the society waited upon his ex- 
cellency to remonstrate. Two days later, being Good Friday, 
he sent a peremptory command to the sexton, " Goodman 
Needham," to open the doors and ring the bell ; and Need- 
ham was frightened into compliance. The service for the 
day was held according to tlie rites of the Church of Eng- 
land ; and, on the next Sunday, the governor and his suite 



again took possession, notifying the pastor that he and his 
congregation might come at half past one. At that time 
the society assembled, but were kept standing for an hour in 
the street. After this, the governor and his retinue used 
the church whenever it suited his excellency's convenience, 
arbitrarily changing their hours, to the great annoyance of 
the congregation. 

In 1711, the South Church had an opportunity to prove 
the sincerity of its reconciliation with its mother church ; 
for in that year occurred one of the great fires of Boston, 
and the meeting-house of the First Church was destroyed. 
The South Church not only unanimously offered its building 
for the use of both congregations, but also proposed that 
service should be performed half the time by the ministers 
of the First Church, who should receive from the deacons 
of the South Church the same weekly allowance that was 
granted to their own pastor. 

In 1727, the congregation had so greatly increased that it 
was necessary to enlarge or to rebuild the meeting-house ; 
and after much discussion it was decided to rebuild. 

So serious was the step considered, that, before the dem- 
olition of the ancient edifice, a day of fasting and prayer 
was observed by the entire congregation. On the Sunday 
following, farewell sermons were preached before crowded 
assemblies; and on Monday the clergyman, Mr. Sewall, 
prayed with the workmen as they began taldng down the 
church. 

The new building was completed in April, 1730, and is 
the edifice so well known to-day. From its pulpit, on the 
twenty-sixth, Mr. Sewall gave forth the prophetic text, — 

" And the glory of this latter house shall be 
greater than the glory of the forimer, saith the 
Lord of Hosts." 

The worthy preacher spoke more truly than he knew, 
when thus he consecrated the walls which, in the coming 



generation, were to be honored above all other churches, and 
crowned as the "Sanctuary of Freedom." 

Richly indeed did she deserve the title. In the struggles 
which preceded the Revolution, this church became the 
scene of all those great uprisings which ended in our Inde- 
pendence. When Boston proudly claims the honor of being 
the birthplace of the Revolution, she will remember always 
how it was fostered in the Old South Church, whose history 
is indeed the very history of Boston. 



THE OLD SOUTH PROHIBITS THE IMPRESS OF 
MASSACHUSETTS CITIZENS. 



At all times of great excitement, when the concourse 
became too great for Faneuil Hall, tlie people adjourned to 
the Old South Meeting-house ; and hence it became the 
scene of all the most animated of those town-meetings 
which were the abomination of the British. Very stormy 
indeed were these meetings, and so widespread was their fame, 
that Burke, to image a most unusual tumult in the English 
Parliament, declares it was " as hot as Faneuil Hall or the 
Old South Church in Boston.'''' 

The first of these many meetings which has left its record, 
was in the early summer of '68. Ever since the accession 
of George III., eight years before, resistance had been 
ripening in the colonies. The Writs of Assistance and the 
Stamp Act had resulted in the triumph of their opponents ; 
but one oppressive measure had been repealed, only to 
give place to the same pretentions, disguised under a differ- 
ent dress. Now, for the first time, armed force had been 
resorted to. General Gage was ordered to station a regi- 
ment permanently in Boston, and vessels of war were sent 
to occupy the harbor. In accordance with these measures, 
the " Romne^i' a ship of fifty guns, sailed into Boston Bay. 
Scarcely ha#^he cast anchor, when several of her men 
deserted. The commander, Capt. Corner, impressed New- 
England seamen to fill their places. Great was the indig- 
nation aroused by such proceedings; andthe excitement 
was not diminished by the news, that, on his way from 
Halifax, he had already seized several sailors from colonial 
merchantmen at sea. The captain was immediately visited 



hy a deputation of the citizens ; but no redress being ob- 
tained, one of the captives was rescued. Although the 
offer of a substitute was made, the captain stormed with 
anger against the town. " No man," he said, " shall go out 
of this vessel. The town is a blackguard town, ruled by 
mobs. They have begun with me by rescuing a man whom 
I pressed this morning ; and, by the Eternal God, I will 
make their hearts ache before I leave ! " 

Next day, a placard was posted about the town, calling on 
the Sons of Liberty to assemble at Liberty Hall, a name 
given to the space around the Liberty Tree. The day proved 
rainy ; yet so many people flocked into Boston from the 
neighboring towns, that there was a larger assemblage than 
had ever yet been seen in town. The recent seizure of 
Hancock's sloop, the " Liberty," had enraged the people to 
the utmost ; and both the name of the vessel and the popu- 
larity of her owner added fuel to the flames. Only the 
expectation of this meeting had ke]Dt the town in peace 
during the preceding night. As the call had been informal, 
and doubts were expressed whether this could be held as a 
legal town-meeting, it was resolved to adjourn till three 
o'clock in the afternoon ; and, accordingly, the selectmen 
issued the accustomed warrants. Meantime, the governor, 
at his country-seat iii Jamaica Plain, received such startling 
tidings from his friends of the doings of the Sons of Liberty, 
that he sent one of his own sons into town to summon the 
lieutenant-governor, Hutchinson, in the expectation that 
the news might be such as to oblige him to withdraw to the 
castle. 

Faneuil Hall, at three o'clock, proved far too small to con- 
tain the people who assembled, and the meeting adjourned 
to the Old South Church. James Otis was chosen moderator. 
Since his argument against the Writs of Assistance, he had 
been the popular idol; and he was received with loud 
applause. 

Otis addi-essed the people, strongly recommending the 
preservation of order, and expressing the hope that their 



grievances might in time be redressed. "If not," he con- 
tinued, " and we are called to defend our liberties, I trust 
we shall resist, even unto blood." 

Such was the first bold presage which rang through the 
Old South Church. 

The following petition was drawn up, and submitted to 
the meeting : — 

Province of Massachusetts Bay. 

To His Excellency FRANCIS BERNARD, Esq., Governor and Com- 
mander-in-Chief in and over said Province, and Vice- Admiral of same. 

The Inhabitants of the Town of Boston, in Town Meeting legally 
assembled, 

Humbly slieio: — 

That your Petitioners consider the British Constitution as the basis of 
their safety and happiness. By that, is established, no man shall be 
governed by laws, nor taxed, but by himself, or representative legally and 
fairly chosen, and to which he does not give his own consent. In open 
violation of these rights of Britons, laws and taxes are imposed on us, 
to which we only have not given our consent, but against which we have 
most firmly remonstrated. Dutiful petitions have been preferred to our 
most gracious Sovereign, which (tho', to the great consternation of the 
people, we now learn have been cruelly and insidiously prevented reach- 
ing the Royal Presence) we have waited to receive a gracious answer to, 
with the greatest attention to public peace, until we find ourselves 
invaded with an armed force, seizing, impressing, and imprisoning the 
persons of our fellow-subjects, contrary to express Acts of Parliament. 

Menaces have been thrown out, fit only for Barbarians, which already 
afiect us in the most sensible manner, and threaten us with famine and 
desolation, as all navigation is obstructed, upon which alone our whole 
support depends ; and the town is at this crisis in a situation nearly such 
as if war was formally declared against us. 

To contend with our parent state is, in our idea, the most shocking and 
dreadful extremity ; but tamely to relinquish the only security we and 
our posterity retain of the enjoyment of our lives and properties without 
one struggle, is so humiliating and base, that we cannot support the 
reflection. We apprehend. Sir, that it is at your option, in your power, 
and, we would hope, in your inclination, to prevent this distressed and 
justly incensed people from effecting too much, and from the shame and 
reproach of attempting too little. 

As the Board of Customs have tho't fit, of their own motion, to 
relinquish the exercise of their commission here, and, as we cannot but 



9 

hope that, being convinced of the impropriety and injustice of the 
appointment of a Board with such enormous powers, and the inevitable 
destruction which would ensue from the exercise of their office, will 
never reassume it, we flatter ourselves that your Excellency will, in 
tenderness to this people, use the best means in your power to. remove 
the other grievance we so justly complain of, and issue your immediate 
order to the commander of His Majesty's ship " Romney," to remove 
from this harbour till we shall be ascertained of the success of our appli- 
cations. 

And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, &c. 

A committee was now appointed, consisting of John Rowe, 
Hancock, and Warren, to ascertain when the governor would 
receive the petition ; and, on their reporting that he was at 
his country-seat, a committee of twenty-one, headed by Sam- 
uel Adams, were directed to wait on him immediately. Reso- 
lutions were also passed, expressing the general feeling that 
was excited by the removal of the " Liberty " from Hancock's 
Wharf, and characterizing the ill consequences that would 
follow the introduction of the troops into Boston. Otis, in 
adjourning the meeting until the next day, earnestly enjoined 
an adherence to peace and order. 

That afternoon, over Boston Neck, set out a train of 
eleven chaises, single file, in slow procession, and drew up 
before his excellency's door. The reports of the morning's 
transactions, that had been carried to the governor at Jamaica 
Plain, had strengthened his opinion that an insurrection was 
at hand ; and, as he was awaiting in the afternoon the arrival 
of Hutchinson, he must have been surprised to see upon the 
road moving towards his house, not a noisy populace, pell- 
mell, flourishing pikes and liberty-caps, but a train of eleven 
chaises, from which alighted at his door the respectable com- 
mittee from the Old South, among whom were even several 
of his own council. " I received them," Bernard says, 
" with all possible civility ; and having heard their petition, 
I talked very freely with them, but postponed giving a for- 
mal answer, till the next day, as it should be in writing. 
I then had wine handed round; and they* left me highly 



10 

pleased with their reception, especially that part of them 
which had not been used to an interview with me." Those 
more accustomed to his excellency's power of dissimula- 
tion were doubtless somewhat prepared for his refusal 
next morning to withdraw the " Romney " from the harbor. 
So impressed was Capt. Corner, however, by the deliberate 
voice of a determined people, expressed in so orderly a man- 
ner, that he gave public notice that he would not impress 
" any man belonging to Massachusetts, or married in the 
Province, nor any employed in trading along the shore or 
to the neighboring colonies." 

This, at least, was a decided concession to the enterprise 
and determination of a Boston town-meeting. 



11 



THE BOSTON MASSACRE. 



The occasion oftenest celebrated in the Old South Church, 
whose annual commemoration contributed so much to Idndle 
the people of the town against their oppressors, was the 
famous Boston Massacre. Familiar as is the name to every 
American ear, few even of the Bostonians are equally famil- 
iar with the transaction ; and, since its commemoration 
became so inseparably interwoven with the history of the 
Old South Church, it seems of interest in this little sketch 
to give such particulars of the fray as may add vividness to 
future pictures. 

The 22d of February, 1770, was kept with no such 
rejoicings as greet our ears to-day. The city was in mourn- 
ing. The first martyr in the cause of liberty had fallen. 
Christopher Snider, a boy of only eleven, had been shot by 
an enraged informer, goaded on to the act by the revilings 
which followed his attempt to destroy a figure-head erected 
by the people. The " informer " retreated into his house, 
whence he fired on the crowd; and little Christopher was the 
victim. 

All " Friends of Liberty " were invited to attend the 
funeral. " Young as he was, he died for his country," was 
the declaration, " by the hand of one directed by others who 
could not bear to see the enemies of America made the ridi- 
cule of boys." On Monday, the twenty-sixth, his funeral 
took place. The little corpse was set down under the Tree 
of Liberty, from which the procession set forth. Four or five 
hundred schoolboys walked before the cofiin, the relations 
followed, and after them thirteen hundred of the inhabitants 



12 

on foot. A more imposing spectacle could scarcely have 
been devised, or one better adapted to produce a lasting im- 
pression on the hearts of the spectators. The morning 
papers of the fifth of March, which told of the occasion, 
gave also several accounts of quarrels between the inhabi- 
tants and the soldiery. 

There had been a fall of snow during the day ; but as night 
approached, the sky was clear, and the moon, in its first 
quarter, lighted the frosted streets. Many people were 
abroad in clusters, as though expecting some unusual event. 
Parties of soldiers were passing through the streets, — an 
unusual thing at that hour, when they ought to have been 
confined to the barracks. As they hurried along, some of 
them struck the inhabitants indiscriminately with their 
sheathed cutlasses, and seemed anxious to provoke an affray. 
There were, at this time, two regiments in Boston, — the 
Fourteenth (quartered in Brattle Street) and the Twenty- 
ninth (in Water Street). 

A sentinel had been stationed in Boylston Alley, which 
led into Market Street from Murray's Barracks, where the 
Fourteenth were quartered. Three or four young men, de- 
siring to go through this passage about nine o'clock, observed 
the sentinel brandishing his sword against the wall and 
striking fire for his own amusement. They offered to pass 
him, and were challenged, but persisted in their attempt ; 
and one of them received a slight wound on the head. The 
bustle of this rencounter drew together all those who were 
passing by, and fifteen or twenty people thronged the alley ; 
and thirty or forty more, gathered in Dock Square, were 
attempting to force their way to the barracks through Brat- 
tle Street, which was, at that time, so narrow that a carriage 
could with difiiculty pass. Several soldiers ran down Boyl- 
ston Alley, assailing spectators in the doorwa^^s, and threat- 
ening their lives. The bystanders ran to the Old Brick 
Meeting-house, which stood near the head of State Street, 
and lifted a boy into the window to ring the bell. People 
came rushing to the scene, many of them calling "Fire! " 



13 

and carrying buckets, expecting a serious conflagration. 
Ensign Mall, at the gate of the barrack yard, urged the sol- 
diers forward. " Turn out," he cried, " I will stand by you ! 
Kill them ! Stick them ! Knock them down ! Run your 
bayonets through them!" One soldier, kneeling down, 
aimed his musket, and was only prevented from firing by a 
lieutenant standing near, who interfered, and pushed him to 
the barracks. " Where are the damned cowards ? Where 
are your Liberty Boys ? " was the cry. " Where are they ? 
Cut them to pieces ! " These and other such exclamations 
roused the towns-people to desperation. 

A barber's apprentice, observing Capt. Goldfinch crossing, 
called out, " There goes a fellow who has not paid my mas- 
ter's bill ! " The sentinel at the Custom House left his place, 
crying, " Show your face ! " — "I am not ashamed to show 
my face to any man," answered the boy; and the soldier 
gave him a sweeping blow with his musket. 

"Do 3^ou intend to murder people?" exclaimed a by- 
stander. "Yes, by God, root and branch!" shouted a 
soldier, sealing his oath with a blow. Incensed by such 
threats, the people gathered together threateningly in Dock 
Square. Suddenly there appeared among them a tall man 
with a white wig and a scarlet cloak, to whom all lent the 
most devout attention. Who the stranger may have been 
is still a mystery. His very words are unrecorded. We 
only know, that, after listening to him for some moments, the 
crowd gave three cheers and huzzaed for "the main guard." 
The main guard were stationed near the head of State 
Street, directly opposite the door on the south side of the 
Town House, where its location had long been very galling 
to the people. To this place all the soldiers detached for 
duty were brought daily, and from thence marched to the 
particular posts assigned them. On this day the command 
of the guard had devolved upon Capt. Preston and Lieut. 
Bassett. 

The citizens who, running from Dock Square, passed 
through Royal Exchange Lane, found a single sentinel 



14 

stationed before the Custom House, which was on the spot 
now occupied by the Union Bank, and made one corner of 
the Lane, as the Royal Exchange Tavern did the other. 
As the crowd ran towards the sentinel, he retreated to the 
steps of the house, and alarmed the inmates by three or four 
powerful knocks at the door. Word was sent to Lieut. 
Bassett, that the sentinel was attacked by the towns-people. 
He immediately sent a message to his captain, who instantly 
repaired to the guard-house, where Lieut. Bassett informed 
him that he had just sent a sergeant and six men to assist 
the sentry at the Custom House. " I will follow them," said 
the captain, " and see they do no mischief." He overtook 
them before they reached the Custom House, where they 
joined the sentinel, and formed a half-circle round the steps. 
By this time the bell from the Old Brick Church had aroused 
the people, who flocked from all quarters in answer to the 
summons. The soldiers were soon surrounded. Many of 
those nearest them were armed with clubs, and crowded 
close upon them. Those at a distance began to throw sticks 
of wood, snowballs, and ice, at them ; while from all sides 
they were challenged, "Fire! fire, if jon dare!" At last 
they thought they heard the order given; and they did fire, 
in succession from left to right. Two or three of the guns 
flashed, but the rest were fatal. Crispus Attucks a mulatto, 
and two others were killed upon the spot : three more were 
mortally wounded, and several seriously wounded. Those 
who suffered were for the most part persons passing by 
chance, or quiet spectators of the scene. Instantly the 
alarum was sounded. The town drums beat, and the bells 
in the churches rang. " The soldiers are rising ! To arms ! 
to arms ! " was the cry. " Turn out Avith your guns ! Town- 
born, turn out ! " 

Two years later, Warren, in the Old South Church, speak- 
ing to men who themselves had witnessed the scene, and 
who now thronged together to commemorate its horrors, re- 
called the desperation of that night. " Language," he said, 
" is too feeble to paint the emotion of our souls when our 



15 

streets were stained with the blood of our brethren ; when 
our ears were wounded with the groans of the dying, and 
our eyes were tormented with the sight of the mangled 
bodies of the dead. Our hearts beat to arms : we snatched 
our weapons, almost resolved, by one decisive stroke, to 
avenge the deaths of our slaughtered brethren." 

Startled by the clang of bells and beat of drums, the in- 
habitants flocked around from every side. Artisans from 
the ship-yards, shopmen, gentlemen, sailors, men of all 
classes and avocations, goaded to madness, ran through the 
frozen streets, ready and eager for the conflict. But the 
character of Boston vindicated itself, even in that awful 
hour. " Propitious Heaven," continues Warren, " forbade 
the bloody carnage." Patriots stood firm and self-possessed, 
and still turned for justice to the law, before adopting 
sterner measures. The lieutenant-governor was called to 
quell the surging crowd. He appeared at the window of 
the council-chamber, and besought the assembled multitude 
to hear him speak. As soon as silence was obtained, he 
called upon the people to disperse, promising to inquire 
into the affair in the morning, and that the law should take 
its course. 

He was requested to order the troops back to the bar- 
racks, but replied that it was not in his power, as he had no 
command over the regiments. Such an assurance from the 
chief magistrate of a city, in time of peace, was scarcely 
reassuring. A gentleman asked him to look out of the window 
facing the main guard, and see the position of the soldiers. 
After a good deal of persuasion, his honor did so, and saw 
that the troops were drawn up, apparently ready to fire 
on the people. He then desired Col. Carr to send the 
troops to their barracks in the same order they were in ; and, 
soon after, they shouldered their arms, and were marched 
to the guard-room and barracks. Pacified for the time by 
the confinement of the soldiers, and the assurances of Hutch- 
inson that instant inquiries should be made by the county 
magistrate, the body of the people retired, leaving about a 



16 

hundred to keep watch over the examination, which histed 
until three o'clock. A warrant was issued for the arrest of 
Preston ; and the soldiers concerned in the firing were com- 
mitted to prison. 

Early the next morning, the selectmen and justices of the 
county waited upon Hutchinson in the council-chamber. 
They assured him that nothing would satisfy them but the 
positive orders that the troops should be removed from the 
town. As on the night before, Hutchinson protested that 
he had no command over the troops, but offered to send for 
Colonels Carr and Dalrymple, and advise with them in 
council. 

Meanwhile the people, at eleven o'clock, had assembled at 
Faneuil Hall. A messenger Avas despatched to the council- 
chamber to desire the attendance of the selectmen, who 
were still awaiting an answer from the lieutenant-governor. 
On their arrival, a formal committee of fifteen was appointed, 
to inform his honor the lieutenant-governor, that it was the 
unanimous opinion of the meeting, that the inhabitants and 
soldiery could no longer dwell together in safety, and that 
bloodshed could only be averted by the instant removal 
of the troops. Headed by Samuel Adams, this committee 
immediately proceeded to the council-chamber, and laid the 
demand before his excellency. Hutchinson requested a 
parley, but in vain. He reminded them that an attack on 
the king's troops was treason, and involved a forfeiture 
of the lives and estates of all concerned. The committee 
simply reiterated their demand, and withdrew into an ad- 
joining room. After some discussion with the council and 
Dalrymple, the governor rej)orted that he regretted the 
" unhappy differences whicli had arisen, but that, as the 
commanding officers of the troops received their orders 
from New York, it was not in his power to countermand 
those orders. Nevertheless, Col. Dalrymple had offered to 
remove to the castle the Twenty-ninth regiment, which 
had been especially concerned in the late affray, until orders 
could be received from the general for both regiments. The 



17 

commanding officer had also promised that the main guard 
should be removed, and the Fourteenth regiment be placed 
under restraint. 

At three o'clock the people assembled in the Old South 
Meeting-house, to receive the report of their committee. 
All day long the throng had been pouring into the town 
across the neck, and even the Old South itself could not 
contain the multitude. The building was packed to over- 
flowing, every door was blocked, and the surging crowd 
filled the street, even back to the Old State House. 

At last, from the council-chamber, came forth the com- 
mittee, led by Samuel Adams, his head bared in reverence 
to the solemnity of the occasion, and his gray locks floating 
in the wind. " Make way for the committee ! " was the 
cry, and the masses parted on either side, to give them room. 
None but the committee knew the purport of the answer ; 
and on that answer hung the issues of peace or war. The 
public indignation, so long held" in check, was ready to 
burst forth in one wild tumult of revenge, a revenge which 
soldiers and citizens alike knew was within the power 
of the populous and determined province. On reaching 
the church, the committee were ushered into the presence 
of a densely-packed audience, filling the body of the edi- 
fice, and crowding into all the galleries. To that earnest 
assemblage, Adams read the response of the lieutenant- 
governor. A moment's silence followed ; and then the 
question was put by the chairman, " Is the answer satis- 
factory ? " An instantaneous " No ! " was thundered forth, 
with an emphasis which made the rafters of the old meeting- 
house tremble with the peal. One solitary voice responded, 
" Ay ; " and the circumstance was recorded by the town- 
clerk, that there was "one dissentient." 

Still the order-loving town determined on one last appeal 
to avert the threatening tempest. Samuel Adams and his 
committee were sent to make a " final demand " for the total 
evacuation of the town. 

It was late in the afternoon, and darkness was coming 



18 

on. The council-chamber presented a memorable scene, 
such as that generation of Americans had never Avitnessed. 
Boston was then the centre of population and wealth, and 
all the formality and majesty of government were there 
exhibited. The full pageant of the royal authority, civic 
and military, was now displayed. There sat the lieutenant- 
governor, his majesty's representative, at the head of the 
council-table ; beside him. Col. Dalrymple, commander-in- 
chief of his majesty's forces, Col. Carr, the commander of 
the Avar-ship "Rose," and eight and twenty councillors all 
in their long white wigs and scarlet robes. Before these 
illustrious personages appeared Samuel Adams, ambassador 
from the great assembly in the Old South Church. 

In the name of the town of Boston, Adams addressed the 
lieutenant-governor. He represented the state of the town 
and of the country, the dangerous, ruinous, and fatal eifects 
of standing armies in populous cities in time of peace, and 
the determined resolution of the public that the troops 
should be withdrawn from the town. " It is the unanimous 
opinion of the meeting," continued Adams, " that the reply 
to the vote of the inhabitants in the morning is by no means 
satisfactory : nothing less will satisfy them than a total and 
immediate removal of the troops. Hutchinson repeated his 
former statement that one of the two regiments (the Twenty- 
ninth) should be removed, adding, as before, that the troops 
were not subject to his authority, and he had no power 
to remove them. The mighty spirit of the Revolution 
then arose in the countenance of the " great incendiary." 
Drawing himself to his full height, and with a dangerous 
flash in his clear, blue eye, he stretched forth his arm, 
" Avhich slightly shook with the energy of his soul," and 
gazing steadfastly at the lieutenant-governor, he rej^lied, 
"If you have poAver to remove one regiment, you have 
power to remove both. It is at your peril, if you refuse. 
The meeting is composed of three thousand people. They 
are become impatient. A tliousand men are already arriA^ed 
from the neighborhood, and the Avhole country is in motion. 



19 

Night is approacliing. An immediate answer is expected. 
Both regime7its or none T' 

The whole assembhige stood abashed before the patriot. 
No subterfuge could evade the crisis. The issue was pre- 
sented, and a direct answer was demanded. 

The irresolute chief magistrate applied to his council for 
advice. 

" These men are no mob," responded Tyler : " they are 
people of the best character among us, men of estate, men 
of religion. They have formed their plan for removing the 
troops out of the town, and it is impossible they should re- 
main in it. The people will come from the neighboring 
towns : there will be ten thousand men to effect the removal 
of the troops, be the consequence what it may." 

There was no alternative, and the order for removal was 
given. 

The committee returned to the anxious assembly, still 
waiting, in the darkness, in the Old South Church, bearing 
the promise of Col. Dalrymple, that he would begin the 
preparation in the morning, and that, without any unneces- 
sary delay, the two regiments should be removed to the 
castle. A joyous burst of applause hailed the announce- 
ment of the bloodless victory. That a repeated refusal 
would have produced immediate bloodshed was evident to 
all. Warren, a few years later, asserted that " it was Royal 
George's livery alone which saved the soldiers from anni- 
hilation," and that, " had thrice that number of troops be- 
longing to a hostile power been in the town in the same 
exposed condition, scarcely a man would have lived to see 
the morning light." 

So impressed was Lord North with the account of the 
scene in the council-chamber, that he ever afterwards referred 
to the troops in Boston as " Sa)n Adams's regiments.'' 



20 



WARREN'S FIRST ORATION. 
March, 1772. 



The fatal calamity of the fifth of March was attributed 
less to the immediate perpetrator of the bloody deed, than 
to the authorities who had brought on the disaster by 
introducing an armed force into the town in time of peace. 
Leading patriots interested themselves in securing justice 
for Capt. Preston and his men. Quincy and John Adams 
conducted their defence before the courts ; though so un- 
pleasing was the task, that Quincy writes, that he refused, 
until " advised and urged to undertake it by an Adams, a 
Hancock, a Molineux, a Gushing, a Henshaw, a Pemberton, 
a Warren, a Cooper, and a Phillips." 

Yet these same leaders Avere determined the day should 
teach its fullest lesson of resistance. The town decided to 
have an annual commemoration of the massacre. Portraits 
of the slain were exhibited throughout the town, and even 
"Snider's Ghost" figured in the window of the Reveres'. 
The oration on the first anniversary was delivered by James 
Lovell, master of the Latin School, who, in all times of 
popular excitement, doubtless won signal favor from his 
boys by promptly dismissing the school, and recommending 
his pupils to repair to the gallery of the Old South. Lessons 
in patriotism, in those days, took precedence of Latin Gram- 
mar ; and Lovell's pupils in the Old South were many of 
them the men who fought at Lexington and Yorktown. 
Lovell's own oration was delivei^d in the church, and his 
boys doubtless filled their accustomed corner in the upper 
gallery. 



21 

It was on the second commemoration of the fatal day that 
the oration was given by Joseph Warren. 

On this anniversary, the people met in legal town-meeting, 
in Faneuil Hall, at nine o'clock, when Richard Dana was 
chosen moderator. It happened to be the forenoon of the 
ancient " Thursday Lecture ; " and the toAvn voted to adjourn 
to the Old South at half past twelve. 

" That cajjacious house," says the G-azette, " was thronged 
with a very respectable assembly, consisting of the inhabi- 
tants and many of the clergy, not only of this but of the 
neighboring towns." The vast concourse were held spell- 
bound by the eloquence of the language, and the frank, 
noble bearing of the youthful speaker. 

After more than a century, that eloquence still holds its 
power. Better than any history, those words transport us 
back to the days when liberty meant struggle, and freedom 
must be poverty or death. 



THE ORATION. 



Quis talia fando, 
Myrmidonum, Dolopumve, aut duii miles Ulyssei, 
Temperet a lacrymis. Viegil. 

When we turn over the historic page, and trace the rise and fall of 
states and empires, the mighty revolutions which have so often varied the 
face of the world strike our minds with solemn surprise ; and we are 
naturally led to endeavor to search out the causes of such astonishing 
changes. 

That man is formed for social life, is an observation which, upon our 
first inquiry, presents itself immediately to our view; and our reason 
approves that wise and generous principle which actuated the first found- 
ers of civil government, — an institution which hath its origin in the weak- 
ness of individuals, and hath for its end, the strength and security of all. 
And so long as the means of effecting this important end are thoroughly 
known and religiously attended to, government is one of the richest 
blessings to mankind, and oixght to be held in the highest veneration. 

In young and new-formed communities, the grand design of this 
institution is most generally understood, and most strictly regarded. The 
motives which urged to the social compact cannot be at once forgotten ; 



22 

and that equality which is remembered to have subsisted so lately among 
them, prevents those who are clothed with authority from attempting to 
invade the freedom of their brethren, or, if such an attempt is made, it 
prevents the community from suffering the offender to go unpunished. 
Every member feels it to be his interest, and knows it to be his duty, to 
preserve inviolate the constitution on which the public safety depends, 
and is equally ready to assist the magistrate in the execution of the laws, 
and the subject in defence of his right ; and so long as this noble attach- 
ment to a constitution, founded on free and benevolent principles, exists 
in full vigor in any state, that state must be flourishing and happy. 

It was this noble attachment to a free constitution, which raised an- 
cient Rome, from the smallest beginnings, to that bright summit of hap- 
piness and glory to which she arrived; and it was the loss of this which 
plunged her from that summit into the black gulf of infamy and slavery. 
It was this attachment which inspired her senators with wisdom ; it was 
this which glowed in the breasts of her heroes ; it was this which guarded 
her liberties, and extended her dominions, gave peace at home, and com- 
manded respect abroad; and when this decayed, her magistrates lost 
their reverence for justice and the laws, and degenerated into tyrants and 
oppressors ; her senators, forgetful of their dignity, and seduced by base 
corruption, betrayed their country ; her soldiers, regardless of their rela- 
tion to the comnmnity, and urged only by the hopes of plunder and 
rapine, unfeelingly committed the most flagrant enormities; and, hired 
to the trade of death, with relentless fury they perpetrated the most 
cruel murders, whereby the streets of imperial Home were drenched 
with her noblest blood. Thus this empress of the ^yorld lost her 
dominions abroad, and her inhabitants, dissolute in their manners, at 
length became contented slaves; and she stands, to this day, the scorn 
and derision of nations, and a monument of this eternal truth, that 
public happiness depends on a virtuous and unshalcen atlachment to a free 
constitution. 

It was this attachment to a constitution founded on free and benev- 
olent principles, which inspired the first settlers of this country. They 
saw with grief the daring outrages committed on the free constitution of 
their native land : they knew that nothing but a civil war could at that 
time restore its pristine purity. So hard was it to resolve to imbrue their 
hands in the blood of their brethren, tliat they chose rather to quit their 
fair possessions, and seek another habitation in a distant clime. AVhen 
they came to this new world, which they fairly purchased of the Indian 
natives, the only rightful proprietors, they cultivated the then barren soil 
by their incessant labor, and defended their dear-bought possessions with 
the fortitude of the Christian, and the bravery of the hero. 

After various struggles, which, during the tyrannic reigns of the house 
of Stuart, were constantly kept up between right and wrong, between 



23 

liberty and slavery, the connection bet\yeen Great Britain and this colony 
was settled, in the reign of Iving AVilliam and Queen IMary, by a compact, 
the conditions of which were expressed in a charter, by which all the 
liberties and immunities of British subjects were confined to this pro- 
vince as fully and as absolutely as they possibly could be by any human 
instrument which can be devised. And it is undeniably true, that the 
greatest and most important right of a British subject is, that he shall be 
governed by no laws but those to ichich he, either in person or hj his represen- 
tative, hath fjiven his consent. And this, T wdll venture to assert, is the grand 
basis of British freedom. It is inverwoven with the constitution ; and 
whenever this is lost, the constitution must be destroyed. 

The British constitution (of which ours is a copy) is a happy compound 
of the three forms, under some of which all governments may be ranged, 
viz., monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy. Of these three the British 
legislature is composed ; and without the consent of each branch, nothing 
can carry with it the force of a law. But when a law is to be passed for 
raising a tax, that law can originate only in the democratic branch, which 
is the House of Commons in Britain, and the House of Representatives 
here. The reason is obvious : they and their constituents are to pay 
much the largest part of it. But as the aristocratic branch, which in 
Britain, is the House of Lords, and in this province, the council, are also 
to pay some part, their consent is necessary ; and as the monarchic branch, 
which in Britain is the king, and with us, either the king in person, or 
the governor whom he shall be pleased to appoint to act in his stead, is 
supposed to have a just sense of his own interest, which is that of all 
the subjects in general, his consent is also necessary ; and Avhen the con- 
sent of these three branches is obtained, the taxation is most certainly 
legal. 

Let us now allow ourselves a few moments to examine the late acts of 
the British parliament for taxing America. Let us with candor judge 
whether they are constitutionally binding upon us : if they are, in the 
name of justice let us submit to them, without one murmuring word. 

First, I would ask whether the members of the British House of Com- 
mons are the democracy of this province ? If they are, they are either 
the people of this province, or are elected by the people of this province 
to represent them, and have therefore a constitutional right to originate 
a bill for taxing them. It is most certain they are neither ; and therefore 
nothing done by them can be said to be done by the democratic branch 
of our constitution. I would next ask, whether the Lords, who compose 
the aristocratic branch of the legislature, are peers of America ? I never 
heard it was (even in these extraordinary times) so much as pretended ; 
and if they are not, certainly no act of theirs can be said to be the act of 
the aristocratic branch of our constitution. The power of the monarchic 
branch, we with pleasure acknowledge, resides in the king, who may act 



24 

either in person or by his representative ; and I freely confess that I can 
see no reason why a proclamation for raising money in America, issued 
by the king's sole ^authority, would not be equally consistent w'ith our 
own constitution, and therefore equally binding upon us, with the late acts 
of the British parliament for taxing us, for it is plain, that if there is any 
validity in those acts, it must arise altogether from the monarchical 
branch of the legislature. And I further think that it would be at least as 
equitable ; for I do not conceive it to be of the least importance to us by 
whom our property is taken away, so long as it is taken without our con- 
sent. And I am very nmch at a loss to know by what figure of rhetoric 
the inhabitants of this province can be called free subjects, when they are 
obliged to obey implicitly such laws as are made for them by men three 
thousand miles off, whom they know not, and whom they never have 
empowered to act for them ; or how they can be said to have property, 
when a body of men over whom they have not the least control, and who 
are not in any way accountable to them, shall oblige them to deliver up 
any part, or the whole of their substance, without even asking their con- 
sent. And yet whoever pretends that the late acts of the Bi'itish parlia- 
ment for taxing Amei'ica ought to be deemed binding upon us, must 
admit at once that we are absolute slaves, and have no property of our 
own ; or else that we may be freemen, and at the same time under a 
necessity of obeying the arbitrary commands of those over whom we 
have no control or influence; and that we may have property of our own, 
which is entirely at the disposal of another. Such gross absurdities, I 
believe, will not be relished in this enlightened age ; and it can be no 
matter of wonder that the people quickly perceived and seriously com- 
plained of the inroads which these acts must unavoidably make upon 
their liberty, and of the hazard to which their whole property is by them 
exposed ; for, if they may be taxed without their consent, even in the 
smallest trifle, they may also, without their consent, be deprived of every- 
thing they possess, although never so valuable, never so dear. Certainly 
it never entered the hearts of our ancestors, that, after so many dangers 
in this then desolate wilderness, their hard-earned property should be at 
the disposal of the British parliament; and as it was soon found that this 
taxation could not be supported by reason and argument, it seemed 
necessary that one act of oppression should be enforced by another. 
And therefore, contrary to our just rights, as possessing, or at least 
having a just title to possess, all the liberties and immunities of British 
subjects, a standing army was established among us in a time of peace ; 
and evidently for the purpose of effecting that, which it was one principal 
design of the founders of the constitution to prevent (when they de- 
clared a standing army in a time of peace to be against law), nanielj'', 
for the enforcement of obedience to acts which, upon fair examination, 
appeared to be unjust and unconstitutional. 



25 

The ruinous consequences of standing armies to free communities, may 
be seen in the histories of Syracuse, Rome, and many other once flour- 
ishing states, some of which have now scarce a name. Their baneful 
influence is most suddenly felt when they are placed in populous cities ; 
for, by a corruption of morals, the public happiness is immediately 
affected. And that this is one of the effects of quartering troops in a 
populous city is a truth, to which many a mourning parent, many a lost, 
despaii'ing child in this metropolis, must bear a very melancholy testi- 
mony. Soldiers are also taught to consider arms as the only arbiters by 
which every dispute is to be decided between contending states : they are 
instructed implicitly to obey their commanders, without inquiring into 
the justice of the cause they are engaged to support. Hence it is, that 
that they are ever to be dreaded as the ready engines of tyranny and 
oppression. And it is too observable that they are prone to 'introduce 
the same mode of decision in the disputes of iiidividuals ; and from thence 
have often arisen great animosities between them and the inhabitants, 
who, whilst in a naked, defenceless state, are frequently insulted and 
abused by an armed soldiery. And this will be more especially the case, 
when the troops are informed that the intention of their being stationed 
in any city, is to overawe the inhabitants. That this was the avowed 
design of stationing an armed force in this town, is sufficiently known ; 
and we, my fellow-citizens, have seen — ice have felt — the tragical effects I 
The Fatal Fifth op March, 1770, can never be forgotten. The hor- 
rors of that dreadful ni/jht are but too deeply impressed on our hearts. 
Language is too feeble to paint the emotions of our souls, when our 
streets were stained with the blood of our brethren; when our ears were 
wounded by the groans of the dying, and our eyes were tormented with 
the sight of the mangled bodies of the dead. When our alarmed imagi- 
nation presented to our view our houses wrapt in flames ; our children 
subjected to the barbarous caprice of the raging soldiery; our beauteous 
virgins exposed to all the insolence of unbridled passion ; our virtuous 
wives, endeared to us by every tender tie, falling a sacrifice to worse than 
brutal violence, and perhaps, like the famed Lucretia, distracted with 
anguish and despair, ending their wretched lives by their own fair hands ; 
when we beheld the aixthors of our distress parading in our streets, or 
draw^n up in a regular battalia, as though in a hostile city, — our 'hearts 
beat to arms. We snatched our weapons, almost resolved, by one decisive 
stroke, to avenge the death of our slaughtered hrethren, and to secure 
from future danger all that we held most dear. But propitious Heaven 
forbad the bloody carnage, and saved the threatened victims of our too 
keen resentment, — not by their discipline, not by their regular array. No, 
it was royal George's livery that proved their shield : it was that which 
turned the pointed engines of destruction from their breasts. The 
thoughts of vengeance were soon buried in our inbred affection to Great 



26 

Britain ; and calm reason dictated a inethod of removing tlie troops, more 
mild than an immediate recourse to the sword. "With united efforts, you 
urged the immediate departure of the troops from the town. You urged 
it Avith a resolution which ensured success. You obtained your wishes ; 
and the removal of the troops was efEected, without one drop of their 
blood being shed by the inhabitants. 

The immediate actors in the tragedy of that night were surrendered to 
justice. It is not mine to say how far they were guilty. They have been 
tried by the country, and acquitted of murder ! And they are not to be 
again arraigned at an earthly bar. But, surely, the men who have pro- 
miscuously scattered death amidst the innocent inhabitants of a populous 
city, ought to see well to it that they be prepared to stand at the bar of an 
omniscient Judge ! And all who contrived or encouraged the stationing 
troops in 'this place, have reasons of eternal importance to reflect with deep 
contrition on their base designs, and humbly to repent of their impious 
machinations. 

The infatuation which hath seemed, for a number of years, to prevail 
in the British councils (with regard to us) is truly astonishing ! What 
can be proposed by the repeated attacks made upon our freedom, I really 
cannot surmise. Even leaving justice and humanity out of the question, 
I do not know one single advantage which can arise to the British nation 
from our being enslaved. I know not of any gains which can be wrung 
from us by oppression, which they may not obtain from us by our own con- 
sent in the smooth channel of commerce. We wish the wealth and pros- 
perity of Britain : we contribute largely to both. Doth what we contribute 
lose all its value because it is done voluntarily ? The amazing increase 
of riches to Britain, the great rise of the value of her lands, the flourish- 
ing state of her navy, are striking proofs of the advantages derived to her 
from her commerce with the colonies. And it is our earnest desire that 
she may still continue to enjoy the same emoluments, until her streets are 
paved with American ^oW, — only let us have the pleasure of calling it our 
own, whilst it is in our hands. But this, it seems, is too great a favor. 
We are to be governed by the absolute commands of others. Our prop- 
erty is to be taken away without our consent. If we complain, our com- 
plaints are treated with contempt. If we assert our rights, that assertion is 
deemed insolence. If we humbly offer to submit the matter to the impar- 
tial decision of reason, the sword is judged the most proper argument to 
silence our murmurs 1 But this cannot long be the case. Surely, the Brit- 
ish nation will not suffer the reputation of their justice and their honor to 
be thus sported away by a capricious ministry. No I They will, in a 
short time, open their eyes to their true interest. They nourish, in their 
own breasts, a noble love of liberty. They hold her dear ; and they know 
that all who have once possessed her charms had rather die than suffer 
her to be torn from their embraces. They are also sensible that Britain 



27 

is so deeply interested in the prosperity of the colonies, that she must, 
eventually, feel every wound given to their freedom. They cannot be ig- 
norant that more dependence may be placed on the affections of a brother, 
than on the forced service of a slave. They must approve your efforts for 
the preservation of your rights. From a sympathy of soul, they must 
pray for your success. And I doubt not but they will, ere long, exert 
themselves effectually to redress your grievances. Even in the dissolute 
reign of King Charles II., when the House of Commons impeached the 
Earl of Clarendon of high treason, the first article on which they founded 
their accusation was, that " he had designed a standing army to be raised, 
and to govei-n the kingdom thereby." And the eighth article was, that 
" he had introduced an arbitrary government into his majesty's planta- 
tion." A terrifying example to those who are now forging chains for 
this country 1 

You have, my friends and countrymen, frustrated the designs of your 
enemies, by your unanimity and fortitude. It was your union and deter- 
mined spirit which expelled those troops, who polluted your streets with 
innocent blood. You have appointed this anniversary as a standing me- 
morial of the bloody consequences of placing an armed force in a popu- 
lous city, and of your deliverance from the dangers which then seemed to 
hang over your heads. And I am confident that you never will betray 
the least want of spirit when called upon to guard your freedom. None 
but they who set a just value upon the blessings of liberty are worthy to 
enjoy her. Your illustrious fathers were her zealous votaries. When the 
blasting frowns of tyranny drove her from public view, they clasped her 
in their arms, they cherished her in their generous bosoms, they brought 
her safe over the rough ocean, and fixed her seat in this then dreary wil- 
derness. They nursed her infant age with the most tender care. For her 
sake, they patiently bore the severest hardships : for her support, they 
underwent the most rugged toils. In her defence, they boldly encountered 
the most alarming dangers. Neither the ravenous beasts that ranged the 
woods for prey, nor the more furious savages of the wilderness, could 
damp their ardor. Whilst with one hand they broke the stubborn glebe, 
with the other they grasped their weapons, ever ready to protect her from 
danger. No sacrifice — not even their own blood — was esteemed too rich 
a libation for her altar 1 God prospered their valor. They preserved her 
brilliancy unsullied. They enjoyed her whilst they Hved, and dying, be- 
queathed the dear inheritance to your care. And as they left you this 
glorious legacy, they have undoubtedly transmitted to you some portion 
of their noble spirit, to inspire you with virtue to merit her, and courage 
to preserve her. You surely cannot, with such examples before your 
eyes, — as every page of the history of this country affords, — suffer your 
liberties to be ravished from you by lawless force, or cajoled away by flat- 
tery and fraud. 



28 

The voice of your fathers' blood cries to you from the ground, My 
sons, scorn to he slaves ! In vain we met the frowns of tyrants ; in vain 
we crossed the boisterous ocean, found a new world, and prepared it for 
the happy residence of liberty ; in vain we toiled ; in vain we fought ; 
we bled in vain, if you (our offspring) want valor to repel the assaults of 
her invaders ! Stain not the glory of your worthy ancestors ; but, like 
them, resolve never to part with your birthright. Be wise in your delib- 
erations, and determined in your exertions for the preservation of your 
liberties. Follow not the dictates of passion, but enlist yourselves under 
the sacred banner of reason. Use every method in your power to secure 
your rights, — at least prevent the curses of posterity from being heaped 
upon your memories. 

If you, with united zeal and fortitude, oppose the torrent of oppression ; 
if you feel the true fire of patriotism burning in your breasts ; if you, 
from your souls, despise the most gaudy dress that slavery can wear ; if 
you really prefer the lonely cottage (whilst blest with liberty) to gilded 
palaces, surrounded with the ensigns of slavery, you may have the fullest 
assurance that tyranny, with her whole accursed train, will hide their 
hideous heads in confusion, shame, and despair. If you perform your 
part, yoix must have the strongest confidence, that the same almighty 
Being who protected your pious and venerable forefathers, who enabled 
them to turn a barren wilderness into a fruitful field, who so often made 
bare his arm for their salvation, will still be mindful of you — their off- 
spring. 

May this almighty Being graciously preside in all our councils. May 
he direct us to such measures as he himself shall approve, and be pleased 
to bless. May we ever be a people favored of God. May our land be a 
land of liberty, — the seat of virtue, the asylum of the oppressed, a name 
and a praise in the whole earth, — until the last shock of time shall bury 
the empires of the world in one common, undistinguished ruin 1 



29 



THE BOSTON TEA-PARTY. 



Of all the many gatherings which the Old South Church 
has witnessed, none have been more familiar than those which 
preceded the Boston Tea-Party. We all know the story, how 
George III., finding the Stamp Act beyond his power, strove 
to conciliate his distant subjects, whose refusal to import was 
crippling British commerce That the tea tax, which alone 
remained, added nothing to the price of tea, mattered not to 
the colonists. With one accord, they had refused to receive 
the cargoes. " The king means to try the question with 
America," declared Lord North ; and the ships were sent. 
The issue was to be tried in Boston. Her tea ships were on 
the water. The governor himself, under the name of his 
sons, was selected as one of the consignees. 

In the night between the first and second of November, a 
knock was heard at the door of each of the persons commis- 
sioned by the East India Company, and a summons left for 
them to appear without fail at Liberty Tree, on the following 
Wednesday, to resign their commissions. The freemen of 
Boston and the neighboring towns were desired to appear as 
witnesses. At the appointed time no consignees arrived ; 
and the committee which waited upon them met with a blank 
refusal. One other meeting — this time a formal, legal one 
— was held to entreat compliance. When the refusal was 
repeated, the town passed no vote, uttered no opinion ; but 
the meeting immediately dissolved. Ominous indeed was 
that silence ! 

On Sunday, the twenty-eighth of November, 1773, the 
" Dartmouth " sailed down the bay. To keep the sabbath 
strictly was the New-England usage. But hours were precious. 



30 

Let the tea be entered, and it would be bej'ond the power of 
the consignee to send it back. The selectmen held one meet- 
ing by day, and another in the evening ; but they sought in 
vain for the consignees, who had taken refuge in the castle. 

The committee of correspondence were more successful. 
They also met on Sunday, and obtained from Quaker Rotch 
(the owner of the " Dartmouth " ) a promise not to enter his 
ship until Tuesday, and authorized Samuel Adams to invite 
the committees of the five surrounding towns (Dorchester, 
Roxbury, Brookline, Cambridge, and Charlestown), with 
their own townsmen and those of Boston, to hold a mass 
meeting the following morning. With electric speed the 
summons ran ; and Faneuil Hall could not contain the peo- 
ple that, on Monday, flocked arpund its doors. The con- 
course was the largest ever known ; and past the doors of the 
council-chamber, past the house of the governor, the torrent 
swept up to the Old South Church. 

That the tea should be returned whence it came, was 
voted by acclamation. Not a chest should land on American 
soil : not one cent should be paid in tribute. Yet the meet- 
ing was calm and serious. A few speakers talked in a style 
which was violent and inflammatory ; but moderate counsel 
prevailed. " Never was Adams in greater glory," wrote the 
indignant governor. A patriot from Rhode Island was so 
impressed with the regular and sensible conduct of the meet- 
ing, that he says he should have thought himself rather in 
the British senate than in the promiscuous assembly of the 
people of a remote colony, had he not been convinced by the 
genuine integrity and manly hardihood of its rhetoricians 
that they were not " tainted with venality nor debauched 
with luxury." The speeches which won this tribute perished 
with the hour, but the men who gave them utterance bear 
witness to their tenor. 

If the king was determined to try the issue with America, 
America was equally determined to try the issue with the 
king ; and in the Old South Church that day were many Avhose 
ancestors had taken refuge in the desert from the tyranny of 



31 

another King of England, who had found a like propensity for 
trying questions with his subjects somewhat unsatisfactory. 

The meeting, after their forcible resolutions to pay no 
duties, adjourned till three o'clock, to give the consignees 
time to make all necessary concessions. In the afternoon, 
the captain and the owner of the " Dartmouth " were sum- 
moned into the presence of the great assembly. The 
" usurpers," as Gov. Hutchinson called the patriots there 
collected, were peremptory in their demands. Capt. Hall 
and Mr. Rotch were charged not to land the tea, upon their 
peril ; and a watch of twenty -five people was appointed to 
prevent any attempt by night. Censure was boldly passed 
upon the governor for having ventured to summon the aid 
of the officers of the law to protect the safety of the town. 
Such conduct was considered an insult to the people, who 
felt perfectly able to protect themselves. The meeting in 
the Old South Church was to fulfil the laws, and not to vio- 
late them. The duty upon tea had been pronounced uncon- 
stitutional ; and the people, in the absence of a governor 
who could defend their liberties, intended to take that office 
upon themselves. In vain his excellency summoned the 
council to interfere. From the windows of the council- 
chamber, they looked calmly down on the concourse stretch- 
ing beyond the church door almost to their own. Bowdoin, 
Dexter, and Otis, and their colleagues, felt little uneasiness 
at the proceedings at the Old South. In vain he called upon 
the cadets, — his own body-guard. What could be expected 
of men under Hancock, when their colonel himself was in 
the meeting-house pledging life and fortune in the measures 
there determined ? The governor, in despair, was forced to 
look helplessly on, while the regulation of the town was 
taken quietly from his hands. Meanwhile, in the " Sanctu- 
ary of Freedom," people were growing impatient. No reply 
had come from the consignees. John Hancock rose in their 
behalf, petitioning for further delaj^ ; and " out of great ten- 
derness for them," the meeting adjourned to nine the next 
morning. 



32 

On Tuesday, at the appointed hour, the Old South doors 
again stood open, and the crowd once more assembled. At 
last, a letter from the consignees had come, stating that, with 
their orders from the East India Company, it was utterly out 
of their power to send back the tea, but that they were will- 
ing to store it until they could send to England for further 
advice. The wrath of the meeting was kindling, when 
Greenleaf, Sheriff of Suffolk, entered the church, bearing a 
proclamation from the governor of the province. This he 
begged permission of the moderator to read. Opposition was 
made to its reception, but Samuel Adams spoke in favor of 
granting the request ; and the sheriff read to the assembled 
people the following proclamation : — 

^^^^"Bay ^^^^^ 1 ^^ ^^^ GOVERNOR. 

To JONATHAN WILLIAMS, Esq., acting as Moderator of anAssemUy 
of People in the Town of Boston, and to the People so assembled: 

Whereas printed notifications were, on Monday, the 29th instant, 
posted in divers places in the Town of Boston, and published in the news- 
papers of that day, calling upon the people to assemble together for 
certain unlawful purposes, in such notification mentioned ; and whereas 
great numbers of people belonging to the Town of Boston, on the said 
day, did then and there proceed to choose a moderator, and to consult 
and debate and resolve upon ways and means for carrying such unlawful 
purposes into execution, openly violating, defying and setting at nought 
the good and wholesome laws of the Province, and the constitution 
of government under which they live; and whereas the people thus 
assembled did vote or agree to adjourn or continue their jneeting to this 
the 30th instant, and great numbers are again met and assembled for the 
like purposes in the said Town of Boston, — in faithfulness to my trust, 
and as His Majesty's representative within the Province, I am bound to 
bear testimony against this violation of the Laws. And I warn, exhort, 
and require of you, and each of you thus unlawfully assembled, forth- 
with to disperse and to surcease all further unlawful proceedings, at your 
utmost peril. 

Given under my hand at Milton, in the Province aforesaid, the 30th 
day of November, 1773, in the fourteenth year of His Majesty's reign. 

T. HUTCIIINSOX. 

By His Excellency's command, 

Thos. Flucker, Secr'y, 



33 

This authoritative summons produced but little effect on 
the men in that "Seed-bed of Rebellion." Hisses of deri- 
sion followed the retreating sheriff as he returned to his help- 
less master, leaving the citizens of Boston to provide for the 
welfare of the state. 

Copley, the artist (son-in-law of Clarke, one of the con- 
signees), seems to have acted the part of mediator between 
the people and the loyalists. No one could have been better 
fitted for the office, as he was a general favorite in Boston ; 
and, though at the crisis he sided with the government, his 
suggestions were often listened to. After the storm of hisses 
had subsided, and the assembly had unanimously voted not 
to disperse, Copley desired to know whether, in case he could 
prevail upon the Clarkes to present themselves before the 
people, they would be treated with civility. The promise 
was given ; and two hours were allowed him to produce his 
friends, during which time the meeting adjourned. He had 
to go to the castle by water, and failed in his mission, as the 
Clarkes refused to appear. Copley returned some time after 
the meeting had reorganized, hoping that, if he had exceeded 
the time allowed him, the difficulty of a passage by water at 
that season would be considered an excuse. He assured the 
meeting that he had exerted his utmost influence with the 
consignees, and even convinced them that they could appear 
in safety, but that his friends could see no advantage in any 
such appearance, since they could only reiterate their former 
statements. They could go no further without insuring 
their own ruin ; but as they had not been active in intro- 
ducing the tea, so also they would do nothing to obstruct the 
people in their procedures with regard to it. 

Immediately the question was put to the meeting whether 
the reply of Mr. Copley was in the least degree satisfactory. 
An indignant " No " was the unanimous response. 

Meanwhile Mr. Rotch, the owner of the " Dartmouth," had 
been summoned before the tribunal ; and in his presence a 
vote was passed, that the cargo of the "Dartmouth" should 
be returned "in the same bottom in which it came." 



34 

Mr. Rotcli informed the meeting that he should protest 
against the whole jjroceedings, as he had done against the 
proceedings of yesterday ; hut nevertheless, overawed by the 
iron will of a determined people, he agreed to the require- 
ments. Capt. Hall was, at his peril, forbidden to assist 
in unloading the tea, and consented to carry it back to 
London. 

Then a vote was passed that John Rowe, Esq., part owner 
of Capt. Bruce's ship, which was soon expected, and also 
Mr. Timmins, factor for Capt. Coffin's brig, should be forth- 
with summoned. Rowe was informed of the consent of Mr. 
Rotch, that the tea on board the "Dartmouth" should be 
returned without unloading ; and that it was the expectation 
of the assembly before him, that he should give similar 
pledges for the tea expected with Capt. Bruce. Rowe de- 
clared that the ship was wholly in the charge of that officer, 
but promised to use his influence to promote the wishes of 
his fellow-citizens, and that he would give them immediate 
information of the arrival of the ship. 

Mr. Timmins, on his part, assured the people that the 
brig to which they referred was owned in Nantucket, but 
that he would pledge his word of honor, that, while she was 
under his care, no tea should be landed, nor should it be 
touched until the arrival of the owner. 

The assurances of Mr. Rowe and Mr. Timmins were voted 
to be satisfactory. 

Resolutions were passed against such merchants of the 
province as had even inadvertently imported tea, while sub- 
ject to duty ; and, for the future, it was declared, that any 
persons concerned in any such importation should be es- 
teemed enemies to their country. It was voted to be the 
determination of the meeting to prevent all sale or land- 
ing of tea, and that the people were prepared to carry 
their votes and resolutions into execution, at the risk of 
their lives and property. 

Well might such a declaration be held as a manifesto of 
rebellion ! Hutchinson tried to fasten it as a proof of treason 



35 

upon some of the leaders ; but " though it was in every one's 
mouth, that Hancock said at the close of the meeting, he 
would be willing to spend his fortune and life in so good a 
cause, not one witness could be found to take oath to it." 

Samuel Adams, John Hancock, William Phillips, John 
Rowe, and Jonathan Williams were appointed to send copies 
of the above resolutions through the colonies, and even to 
England herself. 

Six post-riders were chosen, to give notice to the country 
towns, in case of an attempt to land the tea by force ; and 
the committee of correspondence, by order of the meeting, 
took care that a military watch was regularly kept up by 
volunteers, armed with muskets and bayonets, who, at every 
half-hour through the night, regularly passed the word " All 
is well," like sentinels in a garrison. Were they to be 
molested by night, the tolling of the bells would be the sig- 
nal for a general uprising. Having perfected all these 
arrangements in the most orderly and business-like manner, 
the meeting was dissolved. 

Two more tea ships arrived, and were anchored beside the 
"Dartmouth," off Griffin's wharf, that one guard might suf- 
fice for all. The legal situation of these ships now became 
a serious consideration. Only twenty days were allowed 
before the vessels Avould be liable to seizure, unless they had 
disembarked their cargo. Those of the " Dartmouth " were 
running fast. Mr. Rotch, despite his protestations, seemed 
rather lax in his preparations to return the shij) to England. 
At last, the following placard appeared in every quarter of 
the town : — 

Fkiends I Bkethkex ! Couxtkymen ! 
The perfidious arts of your restless enemies to render ineffectual the 
late resolutions of the body of the people, demand your assembling at the 
Old South Meeting-house, precisely at ten o'clock this day, at which time 
the bells will ring. 

The meeting on Tuesday, December fourteenth, is said to 
have been larger than any of the preceding. ^People from a 
distance of twenty miles attended. A citizen of Weston, 



86 

Samuel Williams Savage, was appointed moderator. Its 
business may be briefly told. Captain Bruce, induced per- 
haps by the promised influence of the patriot Rowe, agreed 
to ask for an immediate clearance for London, as soon as he 
had landed all his goods except the tea. Rotch was again 
summoned, and enjoined at his peril to demand of the col- 
lector of customs a clearance for his ship ; and Samuel Adams 
and eiglit others were chosen a committee to see that this was 
done. The meeting then adjourned to the sixteenth, — the 
last of the twenty days before it would become legal for 
the revenue ofBcers to seize the ship and land its cargo at the 
castle. The town's committee accompanied Rotch to the 
lodging of the collector, who refused to give an answer until 
the next morning. »The Boston committee of correspond- 
ence had the last of their preparatory meetings on Tuesday 
evening. Long and important were the discussions, and the 
plans decided on were fraught with peril. That little body 
of stout-hearted men were making history that should en- 
dure for ages. But the seal of silence was upon the pen of 
the secretary as well as upon the lips of the members. 
Morning and evening, for two days, they had been in close 
communion. Yet the journal for that time contains only 
the brief and prudent entry : '•'■No business transacted, matter 
of record.^^ 

Wednesday came, and one more attempt was made to 
obtain a clearance for the-" Dartmouth." The world should 
not say, in future times, that efforts were wanting to secure 
justice up to the last moment. Adams, Kent, and the others 
of the town's committee accompanied Rotch to the collector. 
This time, he was with the comptroller at the Custom House ; 
and both unequivocally and finally refused to allow the 
ships to depart. This Avas conclusive as far as the powers 
of the revenue officers were concerned ; but there remained 
one more chance. 

The morning of Thursday, the sixteenth of December, 
1773, dawned -iupon Boston, — a day by far the most moment- 
ous in her annals. The skies w«re rainy, no handbill Avas 



37 

posted in the streets, no rally-words were seen in the jour- 
nals ; but the inhabitants of the town suspended business, 
and thronged to the Old South Meeting-house, whither the 
people flocked for twenty miles around. " Nearly seven 
thousand gentlemen, merchants, yeomen, and others, — re- 
spectable for their rank and abilities, and venerable for their 
age and character," — constituted the assembly. There was 
Adams, the "Great Incendiary," before whose might 
the representatives of England had meekly bowed; there 
were the ardent Quincy and the eloquent Warren, and Han- 
cock, colonel of his excellency's own guard. There were 
the selectmen of the town, and there the councillors of the 
province. All the power of Massachusetts had assembled 
for the death-struggle. The hour of deliberation had passed. 
Exile, poverty, and death were before them, or the slavery 
of submission. The assembly knew no hesitation. Every 
peaceable means should be first tried ; but the issue was de- 
cided. 

The committee appointed to accompany Mr. Rotch to the 
collector, reported that he had made his demand after the 
following manner : — 

" I am required and compelled, at my peril, by a body of 
people assembled in the Old South Meeting-house, to make a 
demand to you, to give me a clearance for the ship ' Dart- 
mouth,' with the tea on board." 

Upon which, one of the committee had observed that they 
were present simply as witnesses of the demand, and of the 
answer that should be given. 

Thereupon the collector had said to Mr. Rotch, " Then it 
is you that make the demand ? " and Rotch had answered, 
" Yes ; I am compelled, at my peril." 

The refusal which had been then accorded him availed 
Rotch little. He was reminded that he had solemnly assured 
a former meeting that the tea should be returned. If the 
Custom House refused a clearance, he must forthwith apply 
to the governor for a pass, so that the ship might that day 
proceed to London. The governor had stolen away to Mil- 



ton : so, Lidding Rotcli make all haste, the meeting adjom-ned 
until three o'clock. 

At that hour, Rotch had not returned. It was incidentally 
voted (as other towns had done) to abstain, totally, from the 
use of tea ; and every town was advised to appoint its com- 
mittee of inspection, to prevent any admission by stealth. 
Then, since the governor might refuse his pass, the moment- 
ous question recurred, "Whether it be the sense and deter- 
mination of this body to abide by their former resolutions 
with respect to not suffering the tea to be landed ? " On 
this question, Samuel Adams and Young addressed the 
meeting, which now embraced seven thousand men. There 
was among them a patriot of fervid feeling, passionately de- 
voted to the liberty of his country, — still young, his eye 
bright, his cheek glowing with hectic fever. He knew his 
strength was ebbing. The work of vindicating American 
freedom must be soon done or he will be no party to the 
great achievement. He rises, but it is to restrain ; and be- 
ing truly brave and truly resolved, he speaks the language 
of moderation : — 

" Shouts and hosannas will not terminate the trials of this 
day, nor popular resolves, harangues, and acclamations van- 
quish our foes. We must be grossly ignorant of the value of 
the prize for which we contend, of the power combined 
against us, of the inveterate malice and insatiable revenge 
which actuate our enemies (public and private, abroad and 
in our bosom), if we hope that we shall end this controversy 
without the sharpest conflicts. Let us consider the issue, 
before we advance to those measures which must bring on 
the most trying and terrible struggle this country ever saw." 
Thus spoke the j^ounger Quincy. 

" Now that our hand is to the plough," returned the an- 
swer, "there must be no looking back." And the whole 
assembly of seven thousand voted that the tea should not 
be landed. 

Wlicn, at five o'clock, Mr. Rotch still had not arrived, the 
people began to be very uneasy. But the more judicious, 



39 

fearing what would be the consequences, begged them to 
have patience yet, "for the reason that they ought to do 
everything in their power to send the tea back according to 
their resolves." This touched the pride of the assembly, 
and they agreed to remain together yet one hour. 

More than any of the other speakers, Quincy engaged the 
attention of the impatient audience. At one time, notwith- 
standing his plea for moderation, he seems, from the eastern 
gallery, to have burst into animate invective against the 
measures of the British government. Harrison Gray, stand- 
ing upon the floor, in reply, warned the " young gentleman 
in the gallery " against the consequences of such intemperate 
language, saying that such words would no longer be borne 
by the administration, but would be punished as they de- 
served. " If the old gentleman on the floor," responded 
Quincy, " intends by his warning to the young gentleman in 
the gallery to utter only a friendly voice, in the spirit of 
paternal advice, I thank him. If his object be to terrify and 
intimidate, I despise him. I see the clouds which now rise 
thick and fast upon our horizon. The thunders roll, and the 
lightnings play ! And to that God who rides on the whirl- 
wind, and directs the storm, I commend my country ! " 

Various were the suggestions which occupied the time of 
waiting, as the light faded away and still no answer came. 
"Who knows how tea will mingle with salt water? " cried 
the undaunted Rowe. And the question was greeted with 
applause. All were convinced, as the cold night darkened 
without, that the last scene was about to be enacted. Every- 
thing was prepared and in readiness. Yet few could have 
known what was intended. Should the governor give his 
clearance, the ships would be sent at once to sea, and stout 
arms were ready to assist in working them down the harbor. 
Should he refuse, it would be impossible to pass the guns of 
the castle or the war ships at the Narrows ; and but one al- 
ternative remained. 

Only the flickering of candles lighted the Old South 
Church when, through the darkness, Rotch at length re- 



40 

turned. The governor had refused the pass. Solemnly 
arose the voice of Samuel Adams: "This meeting can do 
nothing more to save the country." Then rang from the gal- 
lery the signal war-whoop. It was re-echoed from the street 
below. Tlie meeting adjourned to Griffin's wharf, and the 
work was done. 



41 



THE OLD SOUTH, FROM THE TEA-PARTY 

TO 1775. 



" There is to this edifice," said one of Boston's orators, 
" not only a natural body, but also a spiritual body, — the 
immortal soul of Independence." 

Already, even in England, men were beginning to recog- 
nize the power even of its very name. 

" The transactions at Liberty Tree," wrote Samuel Adams, 
" were treated with scorn and ridicule ; but when they 
heard of the resolutions in the Old South Meeting-house, 
the place whence the orders issued for the removal of the 
troops in 1770, they put on grave countenances." 

" Delenda est Carthago ! " was the cry in the British par- 
liament. That nest of hornets must be trampled in the dust, 
as a warning to the whole continent. Boston has presumed 
to think for herself, and to act for herself, not by the ex- 
cesses of mobs, such as even royal London has witnessed, 
but in solemn public conclave. No individuals can hence- 
forth bear the censure. By the resolutions in the Old South 
Meeting-house, the town itself has braved the vengeance of 
the British crown ; and the whole town must bear the 
penalty. 

The Boston Port Act followed, a measure which re- 
duced her to a state of siege. War ships blockaded the 
harbor. Not a stick of wood could be cut from the islands : 
not a row-boat could approach her wharves. Even fish for 
the starving poor, from ]\Iarblehead, had to be carried thirty 
miles by land. Boston was excommunicate. Her sister 
colonies were forbidden all intercourse with her ; and she 
was branded before their eyes as an example of signal crimes 
and speedy justice. 



42 

But the patriots never wavered. Troops might obstruct 
the streets, war ships blockade the harbor ; but the committees 
from the Boston town-meetings pursued the even tenor of 
their way. Rehef from other phxces was distributed ; work 
for the poorest was provided ; constant correspondence was 
maintained with all the other colonies. Everything was 
done soberl}^ and in order. Gage and his myrmidons could 
only look idly on, while the town administered her own 
affairs. Even during a serious conflagration, the services of 
the military were courteously declined, on the ground that 
the "regulations of the town rendered their assistance un- 
necessary." For all his influence in the town of Boston, 
Gage might as well have been stationed in Patagonia. 

It was during the pause of expectation which preceded 
these stringent acts, while news of the reception in Eng- 
land of the Boston Tea-Party was still upon the water, 
that Hancock was called upon to deliver the fourth oration, 
on the anniversary of the fifth of March. Though of pleasing 
address and winning manners, he was supposed to be little 
of a writer ; and his selection on this occasion was rather a 
tribute to the man than to the speaker. But either the 
topic proved inspiring, or, as was more than suspected by his 
friends and confidently asserted by his enemies, he received 
some assistance in his composition ; for the orator far ex- 
ceeded all expectations, and his speech was most enthusi- 
astically received. The church was filled to overflowing, 
and among the crowd were all the leading patriots of Bos- 
ton. The youthful speaker addressed the assembled multi- 
tude with becoming modesty : — 

Men, Brethren, Fathers, and Fellow-Countrymen : — 

The attentive gravity, the venerable appearance of this crowded au- 
dience, the dignity which I behold in the countenances of so many in this 
great assembly, the solemnity of the occasion upon which wc liave met 
together (joined to a consideration of the part I am to take in the im- 
portant business of this day), fill me with an awe hitherto unknown, and 
heighten the sense which I have ever had of my unworthiness to fill this 
sacred desk. . . . And I pray that my sincere attachment to the interest of 



43 

my country, and hearty detestation of every design formed against her lib- 
erties, may be admitted as some apology for my appearance in this place. 

. . . Security to the persons and properties of the governed, is so obviously 
the design and end of civil government, that to attempt a logical proof of 
it, would be like burning tapers at noonday to assist the sun in enlight- 
ening the world. And it cannot be either virtuous or honorable, to at- 
tempt to support a government of which this is not the great and prin- 
cipal basis. And it is to the last degree vicious and infamous to attempt 
to support a government which manifestly tends to render the persons 
and properties of the governed insecure. Some boast of being friends to 
government. I am a friend to righteous government, — to a government 
founded upon the principles of reason and justice, — but I glory in pub- 
licly avowing my eternal enmity to tyranny. Is the present system which 
the British administration have adopted for the government of the colo- 
nies, a righteous government ? or is it tyranny ? Here suffer me to ask 
(and would to Heaven there could be an answer ! ) what tenderness, what 
regard, respect, or consideration, has Great Britain shown, in their late 
transactions, for the security of the persons or properties of the in- 
habitants of the colonies? or rather, what have they omitted doing to 
destroy that security? They have declared that they have ever had 
(and of right ought ever to have) fnll power to make laws of sufficient 
validity to bind the colonies in all cases whatever. They have exercised 
this pretended right by imposing a tax upon us, without our consent. 
And, lest we should show some reluctance at parting with our property, 
her fleets and armies are sent to enforce their mad pretensions. The 
town of Boston, ever faithful to the British crown, has been invested 
by a British fleet. The troops of George HI. have crossed the wide At- 
lantic, not to engage an enemy, but to assist a band of traitors in tramp- 
ling on the rights and liberties of his most loyal subjects in America, — 
those rights and liberties which, as a father, he ought ever to regard, and 
as a king, he is bound in honor to defend from violations, even at the 
risk of his own life. 

Let not the history of the illustrious house of Brunswick inform pos- 
terity, that a king, descended from that glorious monarch George II., once 
sent his British subjects to conquer and enslave his subjects in America. 
But be perpetual infamy entailed upon that villain who dared to advise 
his master to such execrable measures. For it was easy to foresee the 
consequences which so naturally followed upon sending troops into 
America, to enforce obedience to acts of the British parliament which 
neither God nor man ever empowered them to make. It was reasonable 
to expect that troops who knew the errand they were sent upon, would 
treat the people whom they were to subjugate with a cruelty and haugh- 
tiness, which too often buries the honorable character of a soldier in the 
disgraceful name of an unfeeling ruffiau. The troops, upon their first 



44 

•ai-rival, took possession of our senate house, and pointed their cannon 
against the judgment hall, and even continued them there whilst the 
supreme court of judicature for this province was actually sitting to de- 
cide upon the lives and fortunes of the king's subjects. Our streets 
nightly resounded with the noise of riot and debauchery. Our peaceful 
citizens were hourly exposed to shameful insults, and often felt the effects 
of their violence and outrage. But this was not all. As though they 
thought it not enough to violate our civil rights, they endeavored to de- 
prive us of the enjoyment of our religious privileges, to vitiate our morals, 
and thereby render us deserving of destruction. Hence the rude din of 
arms which broke in upon your solemn devotions in your temples, on that 
day hallowed by heaven, and set apart by God himself for his peculiar 
worship. Hence impious oaths and blasphemies so often tortured your 
unaccustomed ear. . . . Did not a reverence for religion sensibly decay ? 
Did not our infants almost learn to lisp out curses before they knew their 
horrid import ? . . . 

. . . But let not the miscreant host vainly imagine that we feared' their 
arms. No ! them we despised. We dread nothing but slavery. Death 
is the creature of a poltroon's brains. It is immortality to sacrifice our- 
selves for the salvation of our country. We fear not death. That gloomy 
night, the pale-faced moon, and the affrighted stars that hurried through 
the sky, can witness that we fear not death. Our hearts, which at the 
recollection glow with a rage that four revolving years have scarcely 
taught us to restrain, can witness that we fear not death. And happy it 
is for those who dared to insult us, that their naked bones are not now 
piled up an everlasting monument of Massachusetts' bravery. But they 
retired : they fled. And in that flight they found their only safety. . . . 

. . . Standing armies are sometimes (I would by no means say gener- 
ally, much less universally) composed of persons who have rendered 
themselves unfit to live in civil society, — who have no other motives of 
conduct than those which a desire of the present gratification of their 
passions suggests ; who have no property in any country ; men who have 
lost or given up their own liberties, and envy those who enjoy liberty ; 
who are equally indifferent to the glory of a George or a Lewis ; who for 
the addition of one penny a day to their wages, would desert from the 
Christian cross, and figlit under the crescent of the Turkish sultan. From 
such men as those, what has not a state to fear ? . . . 

But since standing armies are so hurtful to a state, perhaps my 
countrymen may demand some substitiite, some other means of render- 
ing us secure against the incursions of a foreign enemy. But can you be 
one moment at a loss ? Will not a well-disciplined militia afford you 
ample security against foreign foes V We want not courage : it is disci- 
pline alone in which we are exceeded by the most formidable troops that 
ever kod tlie earth. Surely our hearts flutter no more at the sound of 



45 

war, than did those of the immortal band of Persia, the Macedonian pha- 
lanx, the invincible Roman legions, the Turkish Janissaries, the Gens des 
Armes of France, or the well-known Grenadiers of Britain. A well-dis- 
ciplined militia is a safe, an honorable guard to a community like this, 
whose inhabitants are by nature brave, and are laudably tenacious of that 
freedom in which they were born. From a well-i-egulated militia we 
have nothing to fear : their interest is the same with that of the state. 
When a country is invaded, the militia are ready to appear in its defence ; 
they march into the field with that fortitude which a consciousness of the 
justice of their cause inspires ; they do not jeopard their lives for a mas- 
ter who considers them only as the instruments of his ambition, and 
whom they regard only as the daily dispenser of the scanty pittance of 
bread and water. No, they fight for their houses, their lands, for their 
wives, their children, for all who claim the tenderest names, and are held 
dearest in their hearts : they fight for their liberty, and for themselves, 
and for their God. And let it not offend, if I say that no militia ever 
appeared in more flourishing condition than that of this province now 
doth ; and pardon me, if I say of this town in particular. I mean not 
to boast : I would not excite envy, but manly emulation. We have all 
one common cause : let it therefore be our only contest, who shall most 
contribute to the security of the liberties of America. And may the 
same kind Providence which has watched over this country from her 
infant state, still enable us to defeat our enemies. I cannot here forbear 
noticing the signal manner in which the designs of those who wish not 
well to us have been discovered. The dark deeds of a treacherous cabal, 
have been brought to public view. You now know the serpents who, 
whilst cherished in your bosoms, were darting their envenomed stings 
into the vitals of the constitution. But the representatives of the people 
have fixed a mark on those ungrateful monsters, which, though it may 
not make them so secure as Cain of old, yet renders them at least as in- 
famous. Indeed it would be affrontive to the tutelar deity of this country 
even to despair of saving it from all the snares which human policy can lay. 
True it is, that the British ministry have annexed a salary to the office 
of the governor of this province, to be paid out of a revenue raised in 
America without our consent. They have attempted to render our 
courts of justice the instruments of extending the authority of acts of 
the British parliament over this colony, by making the judges dependent 
on the British administration for their support. But this people will 
never be enslaved with their eyes open. The moment they knew that 
the governor Avas not such a governor as the charter of the province 
points out, he lost his power of hurting them. They were alarmed. They 
suspected him, have guarded against him ; and he has found that a wise 
and a brave people, when they know their danger, are fruitful in expe- 
dients to escape it. 



46 

The courts of judicature also so far lost their dignity, hy being sup- 
posed to be under an undue influence, that our representatives thought 
it absolutely necessary to resolve that they were bound to declare, that 
they v^'ould not receive any other salary besides that which the general 
court should grant them ; and if they did not make this declaration, that 
it would be the duty of the house to impeach them. 

Great expectations were also formed from the artful scheme of allow- 
ing the East India Company to export tea to America, upon their own 
account. This certainly, had it succeeded, would have effected the pur- 
pose of the contrivers, and gratified the most sanguine wishes of our ad- 
versaries. We soon should have found our trade in the hands of foreign- 
ers, and taxes imposed on everything which we consumed; nor would 
it have been strange, if, in a few years, a company in London should 
have purchased an exclusive right of trading to America. But their 
plot was soon discovered. The people soon were aware of the poison 
which with so much craft and subtilty had been concealed. Loss and dis- 
grace ensued; and, perhaps, this long-concerted masterpiece of policy 
may issue in the total disuse of tea, in this country, which will eventually 
be the saving of the lives and the estates of thousands. Yet while we 
rejoice that the adversary has not hitherto prevailed against us, let us by 
no means put off the harness. Restless malice and disappointed am- 
bition, will still suggest new measures to our inveterate enemies. There- 
fore let us also be ready to take the field whenever danger calls ; let us be 
united, and strengthen the hands of each other, by promoting a general 
union among us. Much has been done by the committees of correspond- 
ence for this and the other towns of this province, towards uniting the 
inhabitants : let them still go on and prosper. Much has been done by 
the committees of correspondence for the houses of assembly, in this and 
our sister colonies, for uniting the inhabitants of the whole continent, for 
the security of their common interest. May success ever attend their 
generous endeavors. But permit me here to suggest a general congress 
of deputies, from the several houses of assembly on the continent, as the 
most effectual method of establishing such an union as the present pos- 
ture of our affairs requires. At such a congress, a firm foundation may 
be laid for the security of our rights and liberties ; a system may be 
formed for our common safety, by a strict adherence to which, we shall 
be able to frustrate any attempts to overthrow our constitution, restore 
peace and harmony to America, and secure honor and wealth to Great 
Britain, even against the inclinations of her ministers, whose duty it is 
to study her welfare. . . . 

... I conjure you by all that is dear, by all that is honorable, by all that 
is sacred, not only that ye pray, but that you act ; that, if necessary, ye 
fight, and even die, for the prosperity of our Jerusalem. Break in sun- 
der, with noble disdain, the bonds with which the Philistines have bound 



47 

you. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed, by the soft arts of luxury and 
effeminacy, into the pit digged for your destruction. Despise the glare 
of wealth. That people who pay greater respect to a wealthy villain 
than to an honest upright man in poverty, almost deserve to be enslaved : 
they plainly show, that wealth, however it may be acquired, is, in their 
esteem, to be preferred to virtue. 

But I thank God, that America abounds in men who are superior to 
all temptation, whom nothing can divert from a steady pursuit of the 
interest of their country; who are at once its ornament and safe- 
guard. . . . 

I have the most animating confidence that the present noble strug- 
gle for liberty, will terminate gloriously for America. And let us play 
the man for our God, and for the cities of our God. While we are using 
the means in our power, let us humbly commit our righteous cause to the 
great Lord of the universe, who loveth righteousness and hateth iniquity. 
And having secured the approbation of our hearts, by a faithful and un- 
wearied dischai'ge of our duty to our country, let us joyfully leave her 
important concerns in the hands of Him who raiseth up and putteth 
down the empires and kingdoms of the world as he pleases ; and with 
cheerful submission to his sovereign will devoutly say, — 

" Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the 
vines ; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat ; 
the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the 
stalls, — yet we will rejoice in the Lord, we will joy in the God of our sal- 
vation." 

Christoplier Monk, who had been most severely wounded 
in the massacre, was present ; and, as the meetmg broke np, 
a very generous collection was taken for the cripple, Avhom 
they designated as " a shocking monument of that horrid 
transaction." A committee, with Samuel Adams at their 
head, was appointed to wait on the orator with the thanks of 
the town for his elegant and spirited oration, and also to re- 
quest a copy of it for the press ; and "the thanks of the town 
were unanimously voted to Adams for his good services as 
moderator." The following is a view of the occasion from 
across the Atlantic : — 

"• The saints professing loyalty and godliness in Boston, 
send us, by every vessel from their port, accumulated proofs 
of their treasons and rebellions. That mighty wise patriot, 
Mr. John Hancock, from the Old South Meeting-house, has 



48 

lately repeated a hash of abusive, treasonable stuff, composed 
for him by the joint efforts of the Reverend Divine, Samuel 
Cooper, — that Rose of Sharon, — and by the very honest 
Samuel Adams, — Clerk, Psalm-singer, purloiner and curer 
of bacon. The temper and abilities of the rebellious saints 
in Boston are easily discoverable in Hancock's oration, — 
who, at his delivery of it, was attended by most of his maj- 
esty's council, the majority of the House of Representatives, 
the selectmen, justices of the peace, and the rest of the re- 
bellious herd of calves, asses, knaves, and fools, which com- 
pose the faction." 

If the Boston Port Act was intended to frighten the neigh- 
boring colonies into submission, it failed signally of its object. 
With one accord, they hastened to testify their allegiance to 
the common cause, and testify that the sufferings of one were 
the sufferings of all. Warren's Solemn League and Coven- 
ant, suspending all commerce with Great Britain, was adopted 
throughout the continent. One military commander, having 
openly declared that he would commit the man to jail who 
should presume to sign it, upward of a hundred persons im- 
mediately affixed their signatures. " King George had in- 
deed sowed dragons' teeth, when he attempted to starve 
the Bostonians into submission." 

The tories having failed in all endeavors to purchase peace 
by payment for the tea, now planned the entire annihilation of 
the committee of correspondence, Avhich had steadily organ- 
ized the resistance. Warren's Solemn League and Covenant, 
which had been already extensively circulated, furnished 
them with a battle-field. Since town-meetings were the order 
of the day, the tories saw no reason why they should not 
have a town-meeting of their own ; and a petition was pre- 
sented to the selectmen, signed by the requisite number of 
citizens. On the twenty-seventh of June, accordingly, the 
people assembled in great numbers at Faneuil Hall, willing 
to listen patiently to the arguments of their enemies. The 
gathering quickly swelled beyond the capacity of the hall, 



49 

— for, now tliat thousands were thrown out of employment, 
every public meeting was more than ever thronged, — and the 
tories shrewdly argued that, with starvation staring the inhabi- 
tants in the face, they would be likely to vote for the apparently 
slight concession of paying for the tea, which would throw 
open the harbor, and abolish the distress. After Samuel 
Adams had been selected to preside, the meeting adjourned 
to the Old South, where the accommodations were more am- 
ple. When quiet was restored in the vast assemblage, the 
Solemn League and Covenant, and a number of letters, were 
called for by the tories, and accordingly read to the meeting, 

— whereupon one of the loyalists proposed "that a vote of 
censure be passed by the town upon the conduct of the com- 
mittee of correspondence, and that the said committee be 
annihilated ! 

Adams immediately left the moderator's seat, and desired 
that, if the conduct of that body was to be considered, some 
other person might be appointed to the chair. Adams was 
the father and life of the committee ; and to him it fell, ap- 
propriately, to defend it when attacked. He descended to 
the floor of the church, and there the subject was discussed, 
— " the gentlemen in favor of the motion being patiently 
heard. But, it being dark, and these- declaring that they had 
nothing further to offer, it was voted to defer the considera- 
tion thereof to the adjournment." The debate recommenced 
at ten o'clock the next morning. The theme was particularly 
calculated to nerve Adams to the use of all his powers. The 
arguments brought forward by the loyalists for the occasion, 
the appeals to the crowds of laboring men and mechanics to 
ward off the misery which had fallen upon their families, 
needed to be ably answered. It is deeply to be regretted 
that only some disconnected fragments of his speech have 
been preserved. He seems to have illustrated his discourse 
by anecdotes, as was his wont. 

" A Grecian philosopher," he said, " who was lying asleep 
upon the grass, was aroused by the bite of some animal upon 
the palm of his hand. He closed his hand suddenly, as he 



50 

awoke, and found that he had caught a field-mouse. As he 
was examining the little animal who dared to attack him, it 
unexpectedly bit him a second time. He dropped it, and it 
made its escape. Now, fellow-citizens, what think you was 
the reflection he made upon this trifling circumstance ? It 
was this : that there is no animal, however weak and con- 
temptible, which cannot defend its own liberty, if it will only 
fight for it." 

Adams then drew a picture of the future greatness of 
America, as she must one day become under the influx of 
population from Europe, and by her vast natural resources ; 
and he pointed out a great empire in the west, for the resi- 
dence of millions yet unborn, — the posterity of those whose 
privilege it was to prepare the way, by their virtue and cour- 
age, for the generations who were to follow. 

" An empire is rising in America," he said. " Britain, by 
her multiplied oppressions, is accelerating that independence 
which she dreads. We have a post to maintain, — to desert 
which, would entail upon us the curses of posterity. The 
virtue of our ancestors inspires us. For my part, I have been 
wont to converse with Poverty ; and however disagreeable 
a companion she may be thought l^y the affluent and luxu- 
rious, who were never acquainted with her, I can live hap- 
pily with her the remainder of my days, if I can thereby 
contribute to the redemption of my country. Our oppressors 
cannot force us into submission by reducing us to a state of 
starvation. We can subsist independently of all the world. 
The real wants and necessities of man are few. Nature has 
bountifully supplied us with the means of subsistence ; and, 
if all others fail, we can, like our ancestors, subsist on the 
clams and muscles which abound along our shore." 

The town records state that the debate, on this second da}^ 
was of long continuance; but, finally, the proposition was 
put for the annihilation of the committee. Then the assem- 
bly vindicated itself, and routed the tory ranks. Annihilate 
the committee chosen by their own voice, and watching 
over their common welfare ? Patience was at last exhausted ; 



51 

and the defeated grumblers listened to the indignant 
vote, — 

" That the town bear open testimony that they are abun- 
dantly satisfied of the upright intentions, and much approve 
of the honest zeal of the committee of correspondence, and 
desire that they will persevere with their usual activity and 
firmness, continying steadfast in the way of well-doing." 

The tories left the church discomfited. And so ended 
the last attempt of the administration party to carry their 
measures by legal means in Boston. 

" The attempt," says a writer in Rhode Island, a few weeks 
afterwards, " made by these men to annihilate your com- 
mittee of correspondence, was very natural. The robber 
does not wish to see our property entirely secured. An en- 
emy, about to invade a foreign country, does not wish to see 
the coast well guarded, and the country universally alarmed. 
These men, knowing that a design was formed to rob the 
Americans of their property, hoped to share largely in the 
general plunder ; but they now see that, by the vigilance and 
fidelity of the several committees of correspondence, the 
people are universally apprised of their danger, and will soon 
enter into such measures for the common security as will in- 
fallibly blast all their unjust expectations." 

The downfall of the committee of correspondence would 
indeed have betokened the ruin of the patriot cause. On 
them rested the hope of that union throughout the colo- 
nies, which alone could yield success. At the time of the 
attack thus made upon them in the Old South Meeting- 
house, the committee seems to have consisted of Samuel 
Adams, Joseph Warren, William Molineux, William and Jo- 
seph Greenleaf, Benjamin Church, Thomas Young, William 
Powell, Richard Boynton, Nathan Barber, and John Sweet- 
zer. These certainly are the gentlemen who, a few weeks 
later, unanimously voted, that, notwithstanding the rumors 
of the intended arrest of some of the members, the com- 
mittee would continue to perform its duties, " unless pre- 
vented by brutal force." 



52 

The efforts of their antagonists had only strengthened the 
power of the body they threatened to destroy ; and the citi- 
zens of Boston went to their homes resolved to suffer pa- 
tiently the results of isolation, and ready to ask with Adams, 
Whether, in case the price must be submission, "all the trade 
in the province, whether consisting of spring or fall impor- 
tations, would, in the end, be worth an oyster-shell ? " 



WARREN'S LAST ORATION. 



Once more tlie patriots designed to celebrate the Boston 
Massacre. The commemoration was a public affront to Gage, 
both as general of the army, and as governor of the prov- 
ince, — for the subject of the oration was the baleful effect 
of standing armies in time of peace ; and it was to be deliv- 
ered in a town-meeting, contrary to an act of parliament 
which he came to Boston to enforce. But little cared the 
Bostonians for any such restriction. Since town-meetings 
were only permitted on certain specified occasions, those same 
town-meetings were simply kept alive indefinitely by adjourn- 
ment, until the despairing general wrote that, for " aught he 
could see, one meeting might last ten years." 

British officers had publicly announced that it would be at 
the cost of any man's life, to speak of the Boston INIassacre 
on this occasion ; and Joseph Warren, therefore, solicited for 
himself the post of danger. The offer was gladl}'- hailed by 
the popular leaders. 

"To-morrow," wrote Samuel Adams, "an oration is to be 
delivered by Dr. Warren. It was thought best to have an 
experienced officer in the political field on this occasion, as we 
ma}^ possibly be attacked in our trenches." The patriots 
looked forward to the day with deep interest, and not without 
apprehension. 

As the anniversary, this year, fell on Sunday, the commem- 
oration took place on Monday. Many people came into 
the town from the country, to take part in it ; and there was 
a "prodigious concourse." In the morning the citizens, "le- 
gally warned by an adjournment of the Port Bill meeting," 



54 

assembled in Faneuil Hall, with Samuel Adams for the mod- 
erator, and transacted the usual business relative to the selec- 
tion of the orator. It was reported that the committee of 
the Old South Meeting-house were willing it should be used 
on this occasion ; and the town adjourned to meet at half 
past eleven o'clock in the church. The Old South was 
crowded. In the pulpit, which was draped with Ijlack, were 
the popular leaders, — Samuel Adams, William Cooper, 
Hancock, and the selectmen. The moderator, observing 
several British officers standing in the aisles, left his chair, 
and requesting the occupants of the front pews to vacate 
them, courteously invited the strangers to occupy these seats. 
About forty officers, dressed in their uniforms, immediately 
filled these pews, and seated themselves upon the pulpit 
stairs and the platform above. There they sat conspicuously, 
and listened to a glowing picture of the injury which they 
were inflicting on the town. They were treated with the 
most punctilious courtesy. Should any disturbance arise, 
the moderator was determined the towns-people should have 
given no excuse. "Always put your enemy ix the 
WEONG " was the motto of Sam Adams ; and his practice 
accorded with his precept. 

The appointed hour arrived ; but no orator made his ap- 
pearance. The audience manifested considerable anxiety. 
The menaces of the past weeks were recalled, and many 
anxious eyes were turned towards the door. Suddenly, in 
the window behind the pulpit, appeared the missing speaker. 
Prepared for violence, and fearing an affray should he at- 
tempt to force an entrance through the crowded aisles, War- 
ren had procured a ladder, and taken his opponents by sur- 
prise. The astonished officers on the platform, seeing his 
coolness and intrepidity, made way for him to pass. 

The silence was oppressive. " Each man felt the palpita- 
tions of his own heart, and saw the pale, but determined face 
of his neighbor. Warren and his friends were prepared to 
chastise contumely, prevent disgrace, and avenge an attempt 
at assassination." 



55 

Amid "an awful stillness " the orator advanced, and began 
in a clear, firm tone : — 



My Ever Honored Fellow-Citizens, — 

It is not without tlie most humiliating conviction of ray want of ability 
that I now appear before you ; but the sense I have of the obligation I am 
under to obey the calls of my country at all times, together with an ani- 
mating recollection of your indulgence, exhibited upon so many occa- 
sions, has induced me once more, undeserving as I am, to throw myself 
upon that candor which looks with kindness on the feeblest efforts of an 
honest mind. 

You will not now expect the elegance, the learning, the fire, the en- 
rapturing strains of eloquence, which charmed you when a Lovell, a 
Church, or a Hancock spake ; but you will permit me to say, that, with a 
sincerity equal to theirs, I mourn over my bleeding country. With them I 
weep at her distress, and with them deeply resent the many in j arics she 
has received from the hands of cruel and unreasonable men. 

That personal freedom is the natural right of every man ; and that 
property, or an exclusive right to dispose of what he has honestly ac- 
quired by his own labor, necessarily arises therefrom, — are truths which 
common sense has placed beyond the reach of conti-adiction. And no 
man or body of men can, without being guilty of flagrant injustice, 
claim a right to dispose of the i^ersons or acquisitions of any other man 
or body of men, unless it can be proved that such a right has arisen from 
some compact between the parties, in which it has been explicitly and 
freely granted. 

If I may be indulged in taking a retrospective view of the first settle- 
ment of our country, it will be easy to determine with what degree of 
justice the late parliament of Great Britain have assumed the power of 
giving away that property which the Americans have earned by their 
labor. 

Our fathers, having nobly resolved never to wear tlie yoke of despot- 
ism, and seeing the European world at that time through indolence .and 
cowardice falling a prey to tyranny, bravely threw themselves upon the 
bosom of the ocean, determined to find a place in which they might en- 
joy their freisdom or perish in the glorious attempt. Approving Heaven 
beheld the favorite ark dancing upon the waves, and graciously preserved 
it until the chosen families were brought in safety to these western re- 
gions. They found the land swarmhig with savages, who threatened 
death with every kind of torture. But savages and death with tor- 
ture were far less terrible than slavery. Nothing was so much the object 
of their abhorrence as a tyrant's power. They knew that it was more 
safe to dwell with man in his most unpolished state, than iu a country 



56 

where arbitrary power prevails. Even anarchy itself, that bugbear held 
up by the tools of power (though truly to be deprecated), is infinitely less 
dangerous to mankind than arbitrary government. Anarchy can be but 
of short duration ; for when men are at liberty to pursue that course 
which is most conducive to their own happiness, they will soon come into 
it, and fi-om the rudest state of nature, order and good government must 
soon arise. But tyranny, when once established, entails its curses on a 
nation to the latest period of time, unless some daring genius, insjiired 
by Heaven shall, unappalled by danger, bravely form and execute the 
arduous design of restoring liberty and life to his enslaved, murdered 
country. 

The tools of power, in every age, have racked their inventions to justify 
the few in sporting with the happiness of the many ; and having found 
their sophistry too weak to hold mankind in bondage, have impiously 
dared to force religion, the daughter of the king of heaven, to become a 
prostitute in the service of hell. They taught that princes, honored with 
the name of Christian, might bid defiance to the founder of their faith, 
might pillage pagan countries and deluge them with blood, only because 
they boasted themselves to be the disciples of that Teacher who strictly 
charged his followers to do to others as they would that others should do 
unto them. 

This country, having been discovered by an English subject, in the year 
1620, was (according to the system which the blind superstition of those 
times supported) deemed the property of the crown of England. Our 
ancestors, when they resolved to quit their native soil, obtained from Iving 
James a grant of certain lands in North America. This they probably 
did to silence the cavils of their enemies ; for it cannot be doubted but 
they despised the pretended right which he claimed thereto. Certain it is 
that he might, with equal propriety and justice, have made them a grant 
of the planet Jupiter. And their subsequent conduct plainly shows, that 
they were too well acquainted with humanity and the principles of natural 
equity to suppose that the grant gave them any right to take possession. 
They therefore entered into a treaty with the natives, and bought from 
them the lands. Nor have I ever yet obtained any information that our 
ancestors ever pleaded, or that the natives ever regarded the grant from 
the English crown. The business was transacted by the parties in the 
same independent manner that it would have been, had neither of them 
ever known or heard of the island of Great Britain. 

Having become the honest proprietors of the soil, they immediately 
applied themselves to the cultivation of it ; and they soon beheld the vir- 
gin earth teeming with richest fruits, a grateful recompense for their 
unwearied toil. The fields began to wave with ripening harvests, and the 
late barren wilderness was seen to blossom like the rose. The savage 
natives saw with wonder the delightful change, and quickly formed the 



5T 

scheme to obtain that, by fraud or force, which nature meant as the re- 
ward of industry' alone. But the illustrious emigrants soon convinced 
the rude invaders that they were not less ready to take the field for battle 
than for labor; and the insidious foe was driven from their borders as 
often as he ventured to disturb them. The crown of England looked 
with indifference on the contest. Our ancestors were left alone to com- 
bat with the natives. Nor is there any reason to believe that it ever was 
intended by the one party or expected by the other, that the grantor 
should defend and maintain the grantees in the peaceable possession of 
the lands named in the patents. And it appears plainly, from the history 
of those times, that neither the prince nor the people of England thought 
themselves much interested in the matter. They had not then any idea 
of a thousandth part of those advantages which they since have, and we 
are most heartily willing they should still continue to reap from us. 

But when, at an infinite expense of toil and blood, this widely ex- 
tended continent had been cultivated and defended, when the hardy ad- 
venturers justly expected that they and their descendants should peaceably 
have enjoyed the harvest of those fields which they had sown, and the fruit 
of those vineyards which they had planted, this country was then thought 
worthy the attention of the British ministry ; and the only justifiable and 
only successful means of rendering the colonies serviceable to Britain 
were adopted. By an intercourse of friendly offices, the two countries 
became so united in affection, that they thought not of any distinct or 
separate interests, — they found both countries flourishing and happy. 
Britain saw her commerce extended and her wealth increased, her lands 
raised to an immense value, her fleets riding triumphant on the ocean, 
•the teiTor of her arms spreading to every quarter of the globe. The 
colonist found himself free, and thought himself secure. He dwelt under 
his own vine, and under his own fig-tree, and had none to make him 
afraid. He knew, indeed, that by pm'chasing the manufactures of Great 
Britain, he contributed to its greatness : he knew that all the wealtli that 
liis labor produced centred in Great Britain. But that, far from exciting 
his envy, filled him with the highest pleasure : that thought supported 
him in all his toils. When the business of the day was past, he solaced 
himself with the contemplation, or perhaps entertained his listening 
family with the recital, of some great, some glorious transaction which 
shines conspicuous in the history of Britain ; or perhaps his elevated 
fancy led him to foretell, with a kind of enthusiastic confidence, the glory, 
power, and duration of an empire which should extend from one end of 
the earth to the other. He saw (or thought he saw) the British nation risen 
to a pitch of grandeur which cast a veil over the Roman gloiy, and rav- 
ished with the prtEview, boasted a race of British kings whose names 
should echo through those realms where Cyrus, Alexander, and the 
Csesars were imknown, — princes for whom millions of grateful subjects, 



58 

redeemed from slavery and pagan ignorance, should with thankful 
tongues offer up their prayers and praises to that transcendently great and 
beneficent Being by whom kings reign and princes decree justice. 

These pleasing connections might have continued ; these delightsome 
prospects might have been every day extended ; and even the reveries of 
the most warm imagination might have been realized. But unhappily 
for us, unhappily for Britain, the madness of an avaricious minister of 
state has drawn a sable curtain over the charming scene, and in its stead 
has brought upon the stage discord, envy, hatred, and revenge, with civil 
war close in their rear. 

Some demon, in an evil hour, suggested to a short-sighted financier, 
the hateful project of transferring the whole property of the king's sub- 
jects in America to his subjects in Britain. The claim of the British 
parliament to tax the colonies, can never be supported but by such a 
transfer; for the right of the House of Commons of Great Britain to 
originate any tax, or grant money, is altogether derived from their being 
elected by the people of Great Britain to act for them. And the people 
of Great Britain cannot confer on their representatives a right to give or 
grant anything which they themselves have not a right to give or grant 
personally. Therefore it follows, that, if the members chosen by the peo- 
ple of Great Britain to represent them in parliament have, by virtue of 
their being so chosen, any right to give or grant American property, or to 
lay any tax upon the lands or persons of the colonists, it is because the 
lands and people in the colonies are hona fide, owned by, and justly be- 
longing to, the people of Great Britain. But (as has been before ob- 
served) every man has a right to personal freedom, consequently a right 
to enjoy what is acquired by his own labor. And as it is evident that the 
property in this country has been acquired by our own labor, it is the 
duty of the people of Great Britian to produce some compact in which 
we have explicitly given up to them a right to dispose of our persons or 
property. Until this is done, every attempt of theirs, or of those whom 
they have deputed to act for them, to give or grant any pai't of our prop- 
erty, is directly repugnant to every principle of reason and natural justice. 
But I may boldly say, that such a compact never existed — no, not even 
in imagination. Nevertheless, the representatives of a nation long famed 
for justice and the exercise of every noble virtue have been prevailed on 
to adopt the fatal scheme. And although the dreadful consequences of 
this wicked policy have already shaken the empire to its centre, yet still 
it is persisted in. Regardless of the voice of reason, deaf to the prayers 
and supplications, and unaffected with the flowing tears of suffering mil- 
lions, the British ministry still hug the darling idol. And every rolling 
year affords fresh instances of the absurd devotion with which they wor- 
ship it. Alas ! how lias the folly, the distraction of the Biutish councils, 
blasted our swelling hopes and spread a gloom over this western hemi- 
sphere I 



59 

The hearts of Britons and Americans, which lately felt the generous 
glow of mutual confidence and love, now burn with jealousy and ra"-e. 
Though but of yesterday, I recollect (deeply affected at the ill-bodino- 
change) the happy hours that past whilst Britain and America rejoiced in 
the prosperity and greatness of each other. Heaven grant those lialcyon 
days may soon, return I But now, the Briton too often looks on the 
American with an envious eye, — taught to consider his just plea for the 
enjoyment of his earnings, as the effect of pride and stubborn opposition 
to the parent country, — whilst the American beholds the Briton as the 
ruffian, ready first to take away his property, and next (what is still 
dearer to every virtuous man) the liberty of his country. 

When the measures of administration had disgusted the colonies to the 
highest degree, and the people of Great Britain had, by artifice and false- 
hood, been irritated against America, an army was sent over to enforce 
submission to certain acts of the British parliament, which reason scorned 
to countenance, and which placemen and pensioners were foufid unable to 
support. 

Martial law and the government of a well-regulated city are so entirely 
different, that it has always been considered as improper to quarter troops 
in populous cities. Frequent disputes must necessarily arise between the 
citizen and the soldier, even if no previous animosities subsist. And it is 
further cei'tain, from a consideration of the nature of mankind, as well as 
from constant experience, that standing armies always endanger the lib- 
erty of the subject. But when the people, on the one part, considered the 
army as sent to enslave them, and the army, on the other, were taught to 
look on the people as in a state of rebellion, it was but just to fear the 
most disagreeable consequences. Our fears, we have seen, were but too 
well grounded. 

The many injuries offered to the town, I pass over in silence. I 
cannot now mark out the path which led to that unequalled scene 
of horror, the sad remembrance of which takes the full possession of 
my soul. The sanguinary theatre again opens itself to view. The 
baleful images of terror crowd around me; and discontented ghosts, 
with hollow groans, appear to solemnize the anniversary of the fflh 
of March. 

Approach we then the melancholy walk of death. Hither let me call 
the gay companion, — here let him drop a farewell tear upon that body 
which so late he saw vigorous and warm with social mirth. Hither let 
me lead the tender mother to weep over her beloved son. Come, widowed 
mourner, — here satiate thy grief. Behold thy murdered husband gasp- 
ing on the ground ; and, to complete the pompous show of wretchedness, 
bring in each hand thy infant children to bewail their father's fate. Take 
heed, ye orphan babes, lest whilst your streaming eyes are fixed upon the 
ghastly corpse, your feet slide on the stones bespattered with your' father's 



60 

brains.* Enough I This tragedy need not be heightened by an infant 
weltering in the blood of him that gave it birth. Nature, reluctant, 
shrinks already from the view ; and the chilled blood rolls slowly back- 
ward to its fountain. "We wildly stare about, and with amazement ask, 
Who spread this ruin round us? What wretch has dared deface the im- 
age of his God? Has haughty France, or cruel Spain, sent forth her 
myrmidons ? Has the grim savage rushed again from the far distant wil- 
derness ? Or does some fiend, fierce frpm the depth of hell, with all the 
rancorous malice which the apostate damned can feel, twang her de- 
structive bow, and hurl her deadly arrows at our breast? No : none of 
these. But, how astonishing ! it is the hand of Britain that inflicts the 
wound. The arms of George, our rightful king, have been employed to 
shed that blood which freely would have flowed when justice, or the honor 
of his crown, had called his subjects to the field. 

But pity, grief, astonishment, with all the softer movements of the soul, 
must now give way to stronger passions. Say, fellow-citizens, what 
dreadful thought now swells your heaving bosoms ? You fly to arms ! 
Sharp indignation flashes from each eye ; revenge gnashes her iron teeth ; 
death grins an hideous smile (secure to drench his greedy jaws in human 
gore) ; whilst hovering furies darken all the air. 

But stop, my bold, adventurous countrymen : stain not your weapons 
with the blood of Britons. Attend to reason's voice. Humanity puts in 
her claim, and sues to be again admitted to her wonted seat, — the bosom 
of the brave. Revenge is far beneath the noble mind. IMany, perhaps, 
compelled to rank among the vile assassins, do, from their inmost souls, 
detest the barbarous action. The winged death, shot from your arms, 
may chance to pierce some breast that bleeds already for your injured 
country. 

The storm subsides. A solemn pause ensues. You spare, upon condi- 
tion they depart. They go : they quit your city. They no • more shall 
give offence. Thus closes the important drama. 

And could it have been conceived that we again should have seen a 
British army in our land, sent to enforce obedience to acts of parliament 
destructive of our liberty ? But the royal ear, far distant from this west- 
ern world, has been assaulted by the tongue of slander; and villains, 
traitorous alike to king and country, have prevailed upon a gracious 
prince to clothe his countenance with Avrath, and to erect the hostile ban- 
ner against a people ever affectionate and loyal to him and his illustrious 
predecessors of the house of Hanover. Our streets are again filled witli 
armed men : our harbor is crowded with ships of war. But these cannot 
intimidate us. Our liberty must be preserved. It is far dearer than life. 

* After Mr. Gray bad been shot tbrough tbe body, and had fallen dead on the ground, 
a bayonet was pushed through his skull. Part of tho boue being broken, his brains fell 
out upon the pavement. 



61 

We hold it even dear as our allegiance. We must defend it against the 
attacks of friends as well as enemies. We cannot suffer even Britons to 
ravish it from us. 

No longer could we reflect, with generous pride, on the heroic actions 
of our American forefathers, — no longer boast our origin from that far- 
famed island whose warlike sons have so often di-awn their well-tried 
swords to save her from the ravages of tyranny, — could we, but for a 
moment, entertain the thought of giving up our liberty. The man who 
meanly will submit to wear a shackle, contemns the noblest gift of 
Heaven, and impiously affronts the God that made him free. 

It was a maxim of the Roman people, which eminently conduced to the 
greatness of that state, never to despair of the commonwealth. The 
maxim may prove as salutary to us now, as it did to them. Short-sighted 
mortals see not the numerous links of small and great events which form 
the chain on which the fate of kings and nations is suspended. Ease and 
prosperity (though pleasing for a day) have often sunk a people into 
effeminacy and sloth. Hardships and dangers (though we forever strive 
to shun them) have frequently called forth such virtues as have com- 
manded the applause and reverence of an admiring world. Our country 
loudly calls you to be circumspect, vigilant, active, and' brave. Perhaps 
— all gracious Heaven avert it! — perhaps the power of Bi-itain, a nation 
great in war, by some malignant influence may be employed to enslave 
you. But let not even this discourage you. Her arms, it is true, have 
filled the world with terror. Her troops have reaped the laurels of the 
field. Her fleets have rode triumphant on the sea. And when or where 
did you, my countrymen, depart inglorious from the field of fight? You, 
too, can show the trophies of your forefathers' victories and your own, — 
can name the fortresses and battles you have won. And many of you 
count the honorable scars or wounds received whilst fighting for your 
king and country. 

Where justice is the standard. Heaven is the warrior's shield. But 
conscious guilt unnerves the arm that lifts the sword against the innocent. 
Britain, united with these colonies by commerce and affection, by interest 
and blood, may mock the threats of France and Spain, — may be the seat 
of universal empire. But should America, either by force, or those more 
dangerous engines luxury and corruption, evfer be brought into a state of 
vassalage, Britain must lose her freedom also. No longer shall she sit the 
empress of the sea. Her ships no more shall waft her thunders over the 
wide ocean. The wreath shall wither on her temples. Her weakened arm 
shall be unable to defend her coasts ; and she, at last, must bow her ven- 
erable head to some proud foreigner's despotic rule. 

But if, from past events, we may venture to form a judgment of the 
future, we justly may expect that the devices of our enemies will but in- 
crease the triumphs of our country. I must indulge a hope that Britain's 



62 

liberty, as -well as ours, will eventually be preserved by the virtue of 
America. 

The attempt of the British parliament to raise a revenue from America, 
and our denial of their right to do it, have excited an almost universal 
inquiry into the rights of mankind in general, and of British subjects in 
particular, — the necessary result of which must be such a liberality of 
sentiment, and such a jealousy of those in power, as will, better than an 
adamantine wall, secure us against the future approaches of despotism. 

The malice of the Boston Port Bill has been defeated in a very consid- 
erable degree, by giving you an opportunity of deserving, and our breth- 
ren in this and our sister colonies an opportunity of bestowing, those 
benefactions which have delighted your friends and astonished your ene- 
mies, not only in America but in Europe also. And what is more valua- 
ble still, the sympathetic feelings for a brother in distress, and the grateful 
emotions excited in the breast of him who finds relief, must for ever en- 
dear each to the other, and form those indissoluble bonds of friendship 
and afiection on which the preservation of our rights so evidently de- 
pends. 

The mutilation of our charter has made every other colony jealous for 
its own ; for this, if once submitted to by us, would set on float the property 
and government of every British settlement upon the continent. If char- 
ters are not deemed sacred, how miserably precarious is everything 
founded upon them ! 

Even the sending troops to put these acts in execution, is not without 
advantages to us. The exactness and beauty of their discipline inspire 
our youth with ardor in the pursuit of military knowledge. Charles the 
Invincible, taught Peter the Great the art of war. The battle of Pultowa 
convinced Charles of the proficiency Peter had made. 

Our country is in danger, but not to be despaired of. Our enemies are 
numerous and powerful. But we have many friends determining to be 
free ; and heaven and earth will aid the resolution. On you depend the 
fortunes of America. You are to decide the important question on which 
rest the happiness and liberty of millions yet unborn. Act worthy of 
yourselves. The faltering tongue of hoary age calls on you to support 
your country. The lisping infant raises its suppliant hands, imialoring 
defence against the monster slavery. Your fathers look from their 
celestial scats with smiling approbation on their sons, who boldly stand 
forth in the cause of virtue, but sternly frown upon the inhuman mis- 
creant, who, to secure the loaves and fishes to himself, would breed a ser- 
pent to destroy his children. 

But pardon me, my fellow-citizens, I know you want not zeal or forti- 
tude. You will maintain your riglits or perish in the generous struggle. 
However difficult the combat, you never will decline it when freedom is 
the prize. An independence of Great Britain is not our aim. No : oui 



wish is, that Britain and the colonies may, like the oak and ivy, grow and 
increase in strength together. But whilst the infatuated plan of making 
one part of the empire slaves to the other is persisted in, the interest and 
safety of Britain, as well as the colonies, require that the wise measures 
recommended by the honorable the continental congress be steadily pur- 
sued, — whereby the unnatural contest between a parent honored and a 
child beloved may probably be brought to such an issue as that the peace 
and happiness of both may be established upon a lasting basis. But if 
these pacific measures are ineffectual, and it appears that the only way to 
safety is through fields of blood, I know you will not turn your faces from 
your foes, but will, undauntedly, press forward, mitil tyranny is trodden 
under foot, and you have fixed your adored goddess Liberty fast by a 
Brunswick's side on the American throne. 

You then, who nobly have espoused your country's cause ; who gener- 
ously have sacrificed wealth and ease ; who have despised the pomp and 
show of tinselled greatness ; refused the summons to the festive board ; 
been deaf to the allm-ing calls of Ivixury and mirth ; who have forsaken 
the downy pillow to keep your vigils by the midnight lamp for the salva- 
tion of your invaded country, that you might break the fowler's snare 
and disappoint the vulture of his prey, — you then will reap that harvest 
of renown which you so justly have deserved. Your country shall pay 
her grateful tribute of applause. Even the childi'cn of your most invet- 
erate enemies, ashamed to tell from whom they sprang, while they in 
secret curse their stupid, cruel parents, shall join the general voice of 
gratitude to those who broke the fetters which their fathers forged. 

Having redeemed your country, and secured the blessing to future gen- 
erations (who, fired by your example, shall emulate your virtues and learn 
from you the heavenly art of making millions happy), with heart-felt joy, 
with transports all your own, you cry, " The glorious work is done ! " then 
drop the mantle to some young Elisha, and take your seats with kindred 
spirits in your native skies. 

Though some of the officers groaned when the audience 
applauded, yet they were generally quiet until the close of 
the oration. One of them, seated on the pulpit stairs, at- 
tempted to intimidate Warren by holding up one of his hands 
with several pistol bullets in the open palm ; but the orator, 
without discontinuing his discourse, dropped on them a white 
handkerchief. The Forty-seventh regiment, returning from 
parade, passed the Old South ; and Col. Nesbitt, the com- 
mander, caused the drums to beat, in hopes of drowning the 
orator's voice. Every move on the part of the ro^-al troops 



64 

and of the populace, showed that each was awaiting tlie 
action of the other for the commencement of bloodshed. 
But the people were governed implicitly by the advice of 
their leaders, and were still faithful to the watchword of 
their captain. They " always put their enemy in the wrong.'''' 

On this occasion, there can be little doubt that high hopes 
were entertained of some successful interference ; and the 
absolute refusal of the people to be forced to take the initia- 
tive was, doubtless, a disai:)pointment, although one writer 
attributes the failure to a slighter cause. 

"The officers of the army," he says, "being highly in- 
censed by the inhabitants of Boston from many insults which 
had been offered them, and exasperated by the many inflam- 
matory preachings and orations delivered from the pulpit, 
resolved privately to take an opportunity to seize the pro- 
moters of these discourses, — the principal of which were 
Adams, Hancock, and Dr. Warren. The scheme was laid ; 
and the young man fixed upon to carr}^ it into execution was 
an ensign in the army, who was to give the signal to the rest 
by throwing an Q^g at Dr. Warren in the pulpit. However, 
the scheme was rendered abortive in the most whimsical 
manner ; for he who was deputed to throw the egg^ fell in 
going to the church, dislocated liis knee, and broke the 

Doubtless, the patriots of that day would have looked on 
the accident as more than whimsical. It might have ranked 
in the records of the Old South with that other special 
providence, in 1746, when the French fleet, under the Duke 
D'Anville (destined for the destruction of New England), 
was wrecked off Nova Scotia, on the day of solemn fasting 
and prayer appointed for that emergency, and when Mr. 
Prince was praying most fervently that a sudden wind which 
rattled against the window-panes might "frustrate the ob- 
jects of our enemies, and save the land from conquest and 
popery." 

But despite the happy accident which befell the egg, the 
meeting did not close in perfect order. At the conclusion of 



65 

tlie oration, when it was moved that an orator should be ap- 
pointed for the ensuing year, on the anniversary of the horrid 
massacre, an officer standing in the aisle towards the Milk- 
street door, turned on his heel crying, " Fie, fie ! " Great dis- 
turbance ensued, some taking it for an alarm, others for a 
command to the soldiers to fire ; but the town clerk (who 
sat under the pulpit), with his mallet speedily commanded 
attention, and the audience was quieted by Samuel Adams, 
who assured them that there was " no fire hut that of liberty^ 
which was burning in their bosoms. '^^ 

" The assembly," said Adams, " was irritated to the great- 
est degree, and confusion ensued. The officers, however, 
did not gain their end, which was apparently to break up the 
meeting ; for order was soon restored, and we proceeded reg- 
ularly and finished the business. It was provoking enough 
to the whole corps, that, while there were so many troops 
stationed here with the design of suppressing town-meetings, 
there should yet be one for the purpose of delivering an ora- 
tion to commemorate a massacre perpetrated by soldiers, and 
to show the danger of standing armies." 

" The scene was sublime," said Samuel L. Knapp. " There 
was in this appeal to Britain, in this descrijDtion of suffering, 
dying, and horror, a calm and high-souled defiance which 
must have chilled the blood of every sensible foe. Such an- 
other hour has seldomed happened in the history of man, and 
is not surpassed in the records of nations. The thunders of 
Demosthenes rolled at a distance from Philip and his host ; 
and TuUy poured the fiercest torrent of invective when Cat- 
aline was at a distance, and his dagger no longer to l)e 
feared. But Warren's speech was made to proud oppressors 
resting on their arms, whose errand it was to overawe and 
whose business it was to fight. If the deed of Brutus de- 
served to be commemorated by history, poetry, painting, and 
sculpture, should not this instance of patriotism and bravery 
be held in lasting remembrance ? If he — 

" ' That struck the foremost man of all this world ' — 



66 

was hailed as first of freemen, what lienors are not due to 
him who undismayed bearded the British lion, to show the 
world what his country dared to do in the cause of liberty ? 
If the statue of Brutus was placed among the gods who were 
the preservers of Roman freedom, should not that of Warren 
fill a lofty niche in the temple reared to perpetuate the re- 
membrance of our birth as a nation ? " 



67 



THE DESECRATION OF THE CHURCH. 



Six weeks after the memorable gathering in the Old South 
Church, the smouldering flames broke forth. Adams and 
his folloAvers were successful. The colonists were not the 
first aggressors. They had " put their enemies in the wrong." 
The attem^Dt to seize the provincial stores at Concord, roused 
the continent to armed resistance ; but, as before, Boston 
was still the greatest sufferer. 

The fate of the Old South Church during the siege of 
Boston needs scarcely to be retold. It is recorded on the 
building itself, where all who pass can read. The British 
troops had, from the outset, displayed a strong propensity to 
irritate and shock the religious feelings of the community. 
Even before the siege, loud complaints had been made of the 
habit of playing secular tunes during the hours of religious 
service, and the band had given especial offence by sounding 
"Yankee Doodle" as the towns-people plodded their sober 
way to church. Scarcely had hostilities commenced, when a 
new outrage to the feelings of the community was perpe- 
trated. The Old South Meeting-house, which had so long 
re-echoed with the words of the most saintly of the colonists, 
and which was endeared to every citizen within the town, 
must fall the victim. It was, doubtless, great satisfaction to 
the British troops who had so lately been held up to open 
contempt within these sacred walls, to find the sanctuary of 
their condemners at length within their grasp. Pews and 
pulpit were removed and burnt, about a foot of earth and 
gravel was spread upon the floor, and the building turned 
into a riding-school. A leaping-bar, ten feet long and four 



68 

feet liigli, was put up for practice, from the first window 
west from the Milk-street door. The eastern gallery was 
reserved for spectators of the feats of horsemanship, while 
refreshments were provided in the gallery below. 

That it was not the necessities of war which prompted this 
desecration, was sufficiently established by the manner in 
which the mutilations were accomplished. The beautiful 
carved pew of Deacon Hubbard was selected for a pre-emi- 
nence in ignominy, which might equal the owner's promi- 
nence among his fellow-worshippers. With all its silken 
hangings, it was carried off by a British officer and converted 
into a pig-sty. Some valuable books and manuscripts, be- 
longing to the library of Dr. Prince, are said to have been 
burnt ; and the parsonage house, the old original mansion of 
Gov. Winthrop, was destroyed. The sycamore-trees perished 
likewise, which had alwaj'S skirted the grass-plot in front. 
The occupation of the Old South was at the instance of Sir 
John Burgoyne ; and it was his regiment of the Queen's 
Light Dragoons which completed the mutilation. 

The indignation of the towns-peo^Dle must have been ex- 
treme ; and one good old woman, in especial, who frequently 
passed the church, was in the habit of stopping at the door, 
and with loud lamentations, amid the hootings of the soldier}^, 
bewailing " the desolation of the house of prayer." She de- 
nounced on the scornful soldiers the vengeance of Heaven ; 
and in her wrath she threatened that good old Dr. Sewall him- 
self would rise from his grave, and carry off those who thus 
■dishonored his church. One night, as a Scotch sentinel was 
keeping guard, the spectre she had evoked appeared, to fulfil 
its mission. The horror-stricken soldier screamed in agony, 
and his cries awoke the guard at the Province House across 
the way. No ghost was seen by the new comers ; but the 
terrified Scotchman was frightened beyond recovery. There 
was no pacifying him until some one asked how the doctor 
was dressed, and it was discovered that the spectre had ap- 
peared with a large wig and gown. Fortunately for the sen- 
tinel's future night-watches, one of the towns-people was 



69 

able to assure him that the apparition could not have been 
the doctor, as he never had worn a wig ; and tliis restored 
the poor fellow to his senses. It was supposed to have 
been a trick of a comrade, who wished to frighten a super- 
stitious Scotchman, and for that purpose dressed himself 
in the clerical robes of the Rev. j\Ir. Cooke of Metonomy, 
which he had plundered on his retreat at the battle of 
Lexington. 

Once more the anniversary of the Boston Massacre ap- 
proached ; and the church in which the day had been so often 
commemorated was in its direst desolation. The sound of 
hurrying hoofs had replaced the scathing words of Warren ; 
and British soldiers panted to revenge their humiliation of 
the previous year, by feats of daring horsemanship. But the 
morning sun taught them a different lesson. The patriots 
who could not commemorate their accustomed day within 
the walls of their ancient temple, had chosen another cele- 
bration. At daAvn, the bristling heights of Dorchester com- 
manded tlie town, and compelled the bewildered soldiery 
to evacuate it. There was little thought of horseman- 
ship or revelry in the Old South Church upon that fifth 
of March. 

When, a fortnight later, Washington entered the rescued 
town, his earliest pilgrimage was to the Old South Church. 
There, standing in the eastern gallery, he looked sadly down 
on all the wreck below, and reverently said that it was 
"strange that the British, who so venerated their own 
churches, should thus have desecrated ours." 

Scarcely a, century has passed away, and yet these walls 
have witnessed a stranger desecration than any occupation by 
foreign troops. But not until our prosperous days did it 
suffer its sad disgrace. When, in 1861, the rebel guns fired 
upon the flag at Sumpter and roused the sleeping land, — 
where was it but in the Old South Church that Boston raised 
those stars and stripes to highest honor ? Ready indeed were 
its possessors then to claim its proud pre-eminence. Listen 



70 

to the words of its pastor and standing committee on that 
day: — 

"In this sad crisis in our nation's history, when treason and rebellion are 
abroad in our land, it has occurred to all of us connected with this so- 
ciety, that the banner of our fathers should float from this renowned 
building. Where better than on this consecrated spot should the national 
emblem be displayed ? In the dark and stormy times of our revolution- 
ary history, it was within the consecrated walls of this Old South Church 
that our patriotic fathers were accustomed to assemble and take counsel 
together. Here Warren and Hancock and the Adamses, and their asso- 
ciates, met and poured out their indignant protest against British oppres- 
sion. Here, within a few feet of where we stand, Benjamin Franklin was 
born. Let us then, in memory of the past and in hope and faith in the 
future, but above all relying upon the favor of Heaven, reverently throw 
our national flag to the breeze, and invoke upon it the blessing of 
almighty God I . . . 

" And as it is befitting that Christianity should embrace the Ameri- 
can ensign to-day, so it seems hardly less proper that the Old South, 
of all the churches in New England, should be delegated for this touching 
ceremony. She is not the oldest, but certainly the most historic of them 
all. The history of the nation cannot be separated from hers, — the two 
are inseparably intertwined. Within a few yards of us, John Winthrop 
lived and died ; and his mansion was occupied by ministers of this church 
until destroyed during the war of the Revolution. From his family, 
these grounds passed into the possession of John Norton, the celebrated 
divine ; and by him they were given to the church, for the twofold object 
of civil and religious liberty. 

" The State House and this sanctuary have been called the Moses and 
Aaron of New-England freemen. Here the citizens of Boston, after the 
tragedy of March 5, 1770, met to denounce standing armies, and to de- 
mand the removal of the English troops, — a meeting which grew to be 
an annual custom, under the direction of the selectmen, and which was 
really the origin of our present municipal observance of the Fourth of 
July. Echoes of the eloquence of Samuel Adams, Otis, and Hancock, 
sleep within these walls, — eloquence which gave birth to the American 
republic, and which seems to be blossoming out and rousing us as it did 
our fathers, in the starry folds now floating overhead. 

" Hither Warren came, and climbed in through that window into the 
pulpit, on that memorable day when no other citizen dared address the 
people, — when none but those who loved liberty more than life ventured 
to be his auditors, — while the king's trooiDS, fully armed, thronged the 
aisles and pulpit steps. This building has served as an exercise-ground 
for horsemen, who sought to conquer the immortal emblem above us. 



71 

The horse and his rider have perished, while the temple they profaned 
still stands, and the flag they hated still waves on high ! 

" The sanctuary which gave its sacred waters to the brow of Franklin, 
this day dedicates and baptizes, in the name of the triune God, the symbol 
which that matchless diplomatist lured from the unwilHng hands of kings, 
and which he taught the nations to fear and to admire. We welcome 
thee back to thy natal spot, — to the Puritan church where thou wert 
born, — flag of the free I " 



72 



THE LAST OF THE TOWN-MEETINGS. 



The stoiy of the* present crisis is yet unwritten, — per- 
chance it may ever remain so, — but men still tremble at the 
danger so narrowly averted. The people of to-day will not 
speedily forget the perils they have witnessed, or the hair- 
breadth nature of the escape. 

When, in the great Boston fire, the flames flared up 
around the ancient walls, our 'firemen labored like heroes. 
" We must save the Old South ! " was the cry, as they 
charged where the burning tide was fiercest. And the Old 
South stood ; her steeple still towered high above the black- 
ened ruins ; and while Boston mourned her stately piles 
laid low, one voice of glad thanksgiving arose throughout 
the land. 

Little we knew the future. That very month, the guard- 
ians of that hallowed spot were bartering their birthright. 
Those sacred walls which, a dozen years before, they had 
deemed of priceless value, they now are anxious to resign, — 
and to resign for any purpose, however unbefitting. It was 
for a postofifice that they delivered up the church, and them- 
selves emulated the •desecration whose record they had in- 
scribed upon their walls in holy horror. 

Of them and of their course we can be silent. Their de- 
sertion might have been forgiven ; their motives might even 
have been respected ; and their verdict has been written by 
themselves. When Boston shall have redeemed her birth- 
right, she will remember that their aid alone is absent, their 
hands alone have hindered where they might have helped. 
TJiei/ have had their opportunity^ and they have lost it I We 
can leave the rest to time. 



73 

Yet in justice to our native city, let it not be forgotten that 
the desertion vras, not unanimous. Nearly half the society 
voted most resolutely against the lease, and for two years 
contended for the preservation of the church before the 
legislature and in the courts. Within five weeks after the 
power was given, the last dishonor was suffered. The Old 
South Meeting-house was advertised for sale as bricks and 
mortar, and for thirteen hundred and fifty dollars, knocked 
off to the highest bidder ! 

The indignation of the town broke forth, now the last 
hour was come. Possession for seven days was purchased, 
the Old Church was dressed with flags, and an hour ap- 
pointed for one last struggle to preserve its honored walls. 
The church was crowded to overifiowing ; and the affection 
of the town^ for her old rallying-ground was settled beyond 
dispute. The committee appointed by their fellow-citizens 
undertook the sacred charge. Under many difficulties, they 
have been at last so far successful as to place it in friendly 
hands, Avhere it is held until the public can redeem it. 

Those who deemed the task Quixotic, and predicted fail- 
ure for the attempt, had forgotten the lesson taught of old 
to Hutchinson and Gage, — that a Boston town-meeting 
always means to compass what it undertakes whenever it 
assembles in the Old South Church. 



